NekoNin Foxy!
by Wixeron
Summary: Masters of nintaijutsu, stealth and randomness,the NekoNins took Naruto under their wing! Watch as smart and strong Naruto take on the world as a NekoNin! NarutoxYugito. Chapter 7: Naruto meets a demon stronger than Kyuubi; himself.
1. Prologue: NekoNin Kitten!

**Summary: **Humans aren't the only Nin on the planet. Cats too! Masters of Nintaijutsu, stealth and randomness, Naruto is taken under their wing! Smart and Strong NekoNin Naruto takes on the world! It will be NarutoHarem but pairing still not decided but Yugito is a must! Being a cat after all...

**Author's Note: **You know it seems that in the Narutoverse, Ninjutsu isn't limited to humans since the Toads can do it too. So I figured if they can do it, surely others can? And what fit the description of a ninja nicely than a cat? And so I came up with the story about Cat Ninjas and Naruto!

**Disclaimer: **You just have to remind me, don't you, Disclaimer! No, I do not own Naruto!

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**PROLOGUE: NEKONIN KITTEN!**

**CHUNIN EXAM MATCH: NARUTO VS KIBA**

Kiba Inuzuka is the proud member of the Inuzuka Clan, known for their ferocity and feral style in battle. While they might not be as strong as the Hyuuga or the Uchiha, make no mistake, they can rip you to shreds if you are not careful.

That being said, Kiba isn't a pushover. And in the Rookie 9, he wasn't the last in terms of power and strength. Uzumaki Naruto is.

So why would he have trouble fighting Uzumaki Naruto, the dead last of the Rookie 9? What's more, he was using some very advanced jutsu he never seen before!

'Fuck it! I underestimated him before, but no more!' "Akamaru!" Kiba then fed him and his companion dog the Soldier Pill and Akamaru's fur immediately turn red. Akamaru then climb on Kiba and initiate their technique.

"Beast Human Clone!" when the smoke clears, two Kibas can be seen.

"Whhaaa? Now your dog turns to human?" Uzumaki Naruto claimed. "Alright pal, two can play the same!"

Naruto then bit his left thumb until it bleeds and perform hand seals. He then slammed his palm onto the floor and seals began to spread out from it.

"Summoning Jutsu!" and a large smoke consumed Naruto.

Naruto then smirked. He had just executed a summoning technique which allows him to call help from other places. The truth is, the 'help' he had just summoned is way too overkill for Kiba and Akamaru. But still, since Kiba decided to gang-up on him, he figured he return the favour.

The smoke then cleared and from it emerged a small figure. Everyone that was watching immediately snickered and some were even laughing! Kiba included.

"Is that it? Bwaahahahahaha!" Kiba laughed his ass off including Aka-Kiba.

Naruto turn to look at his summon and, were he in a different situation, he would laugh his ass too. But now is not the time.

This is because his summon was an orange cat at the height of Naruto's knee. The cat wore a black kimono and had giant meat cleaver that was wrapped in cloth and it was way too big for him to handle. The cat also wore a forehead protector with a cat paw's symbol engraved around his left arm. He was glaring now at Kiba.

"Ichigo! Why the heck are you so freaking small?" Naruto asked the cat, Ichigo in front of him.

The cat, tched and rubbed the back of his head. "Fucking Mayuri fed me his experimental pill! That's why!"

"And you eat it why?" Naruto asked in disbelieve. Kurotsuchi Mayuri is an evil-yet-good genius cat scientist. And he often makes his comrades the guinea pig for his experiments.

"He forced it on me!" Ichigo the cat retorted. The cat is Kurosaki Ichigo. One of Nekogakure's strongest NekoNin. He wasn't always this small mind you. He is normally at Naruto's height. But alas, being experimented on had turned him small now.

"Is this permanent?" Naruto asked the cat with sympathy. He could relate as he was also experimented on.

"He said _maybe,_" Naruto 'ooh' at his reply. That means it could last a while.

"Gah! And you so happen to summon me at the worst moment and embarrassed me!" Ichigo said.

"Well, show your skills and they won't be laughing anymore," Naruto replied. Everyone was silent as they watched the interaction between the human and the cat. Ninja Dogs is normal, but Ninja Cat? That is rare.

"Ugh, I can swing Zangetsu. It's just the matter of space," Ichigo tried swinging his large meat cleaver. But he can only swing it horizontally. He then got an idea. Ichigo disappeared and appears on top of Naruto's head and began swinging his Zangetsu around. This time he can swing it vertically.

"Much better. So are we gonna kick dog butt or what?" Ichigo said with a smirk.

"Of course, let show them who's better, Cats or Dogs?" Naruto smirked too. He then performed hand seals and Ichigo's Zangetsu glows with dark red chakra.

"Collaboration Technique: Getsuga Tornado!"

Everyone was shocked as a black tornado filled the room and consumed Kiba and Akamaru.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**SIX YEARS BEFORE**

Naruto had enough!

Enough of the discrimination, the cold treatments, the name callings and the beatings!

After six years of living with harsh treatments, he had already developed a near immunity to it. People called him names? Like he cares! People discriminated him? He didn't care!

However, there's one thing that he just couldn't accept.

The people never give him a chance to be a better person. To improve himself so that people wouldn't call him loser, dead last or idiot. To improve himself so that people would respect him! That the people of his 'home' would sabotage him!

If he tried to learn something, they would give him the wrong education. No wonder he couldn't perform even the basic things that normal kids at the Academy could! No wonder he's a loser!

This particular treatment had almost caused him to fail protecting someone that is dear to him.

But no more. If his own kind won't accept him and teach him, then it's time to find others that would.

After a bit of searching for jutsus that he could learn himself, he later found out about the Summoning Technique. And after an extensive research, he found out some delicious titbits.

It turns out that Humans aren't the only ones who are able to perform chakra manipulation and thus ninjutsus. Other species like the Toads could.

And so, he hoped that he could summon one or at least get summoned to the Toads native place to learn from them.

Or maybe some other species.

But there's a lot of problem.

First, the summoned doesn't necessarily follow your order. It would be bad if he summoned creatures that wouldn't take it to a kid summoning them.

Second, the amount of chakra you put equals to the rank of summons. So put little chakra and you would get the greens.

Third, to accurately summon the species you wanted, you need their respective contract scrolls. And those scrolls wasn't just laid around or put in archive at the library. The scrolls are item that are passed on from the person who started the contract to others. And summoning contract scrolls are rare.

Fourth, even without the scroll, he could just perform the Summoning Technique and he would be SUMMONED instead to the species' home. The type of species depends on the user's natural affinity and there's a chance that he could get transported to the land of snakes that are more than happy to devour him or to where the animals doesn't know how to use Justus.

Still, Naruto wasn't about to give up! This is his last option now, its do or die!

"Kuchiyose No Jutsu!" and with that Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Naruto felt a weird sensation when he initiated the Summoning Technique. It felt like he was falling yet he isn't. And then halfway he felt like he was flying.

After the sensation stopped, the same smoke that consumed him still remains. After waving his arms around to get rid of it, he could finally see...

Lots of cats...

Human size cats...

Looking at him...

"A human, NYA!" a cat said.

"Human? Human, NYA! It's been a while!" same other cats said.

'Cats? Man! I wanted the Toads! Oh well, better play nice, who knows what they could do to me...' Naruto thought. 'Still, the fact that they could talk means something...'

"E-everyone! I'm UZUMAKI NARUTO!" Naruto said with enthusiasm. "And I came here to learn how to be a ninja!"

All the cat stopped making noises and some even tilted their heads. Then they all swarmed him and the next thing Naruto knew is that he was carried by the cats to a certain place. "Guys? You're not gonna eat me are you?"

After a while, he was unceremoniously dumped on his butt in front of a large throne. A black cat with forked tail and golden eyes sat there and drinking...sake?

"Human, Nin, become, want!" a cat said.

'What is he? Yoda-Cat?' Naruto thought.

"I see," the Nekomata said in a gruff male voice and scanned him. Naruto swallowed hard. He heard about the Nekomata. The lore depicted them as EVIL. Dead people rising evil! But that also means the cat must be strong!

Naruto decided to present his case first. "Please! I wanted to learn from you guys how to do ninjutsu and ninja stuff! I wanted to be strong!"

The Nekomata was silent for a moment.

"Hmm...It has been a while since a human had come here; much less form a contract with us. For you to get transported here shows compatibility with us..."the Nekomata then put down his cup of sake and walked on all fours towards Naruto and sniffed him.

"Still, it doesn't mean you're worthy of us, boy," the Nekomata growled at him and turned away.

'Damn it! I've had it! People always JUDGE him before they knew him!' Naruto thought.

"I'm begging you! There's no one else who would teach me!" Naruto immediately grabbed the Nekomata's tail.

Everyone gasped at this. To animal with tails, tails are very important! You don't just grab it! The Nekomata turned his head slowly and gave him a deadly glare and released an enormous Killer Intent (KI).

Naruto almost spilled his guts on the floor but held strong and still didn't release the tail. "Please...I'm at my end here..."

The Nekomata then held back his KI and relaxed. Naruto noticed this and released the tail. "Why here?"

"Because...my people hated me. They won't give me a chance at all!" Naruto said weakly.

"Do you know why?" the cat said. The Nekomata knew what happened to the boy. Cats are CURIOUS and they prided in knowing almost everything that happened in the world.

Naruto nodded. "I...I'm not sure, but I think I know why. Because I have a demon inside me,"

The truth is, Naruto Uzumaki holds inside him the strongest demon, the Nine-Tailed Beast or the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi, when Naruto was born, attacked his village and it cost a lot to seal the demon into him. It was the reason why he was hated throughout the village bar few people.

"It is reasonable for your people to hold you back. They are afraid that you might use the demon's power to hurt them," the cat said.

Naruto then balled his fist. "It's fucking stupid! I'm not the demon! If they don't want me to hurt them then they shouldn't hurt me too!"

"Then why would you want to become strong? For revenge?" the cat asked.

Naruto looked away with tears in his eyes. "No...I wanted to protect the very few precious people to me...the people that cared. Ayame-san...got hurt because of me. If only I were stronger, she wouldn't..."

Ayame and her father Teuchi, is the owner of the Ichiraku Ramen stand. They are one of the very few people who genuinely care and didn't hate him because of what's inside him.

One night however, when Ayame was closing the store, a group of men decided to extract revenge on Naruto through her.

Luckily Naruto was around and even though he tried, he couldn't fight them at all. All because of his improper training by the Academy. Fortunately for both of them, Naruto had managed to hold on long enough for Teuchi to come and drive them away.

After that, Naruto vowed to become stronger.

Suprisingly, the Nekomata smirked. 'So mature for someone of his age,'

"Very good boy. True strength isn't about who or what you can defeat. It is what you could protect. Very well then, I deem you worthy of us. We will train you," the Nekomata said.

Naruto had a huge smile upon hearing this! Finally! Someone that accepted him! He was so happy that he hugged the Nekomata!

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You won't regret it I swear on I'll make you proud-"Naruto rambled.

The Nekomata sighed and in an instant was out of Naruto's grasp and back at his throne with his sake again. Naruto was amazed by this.

"The name is Yoruichi, kitten. What's yours?" Yoruichi said.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Future Hokage!" Naruto beamed. This caused Yoruichi to laugh.

'This kitten is amazing! After all the treatment he endured, he still wanted to be related to that place? There might be a bright future for him after all' Yoruichi mused.

Naruto pouted at this. Almost everyone that heard his dream laughed at him. Just wait, later on, when he becomes the Hokage, he's so gonna rub it in their faces!

"Alright then, future-Hokage-kitten. Welcome to Nekogakure, The Hidden Village of the Cats," Yoruichi said with a smirk. He then snapped his...cat fingers? "Kenzo,"

Immediately a cat appeared besides Naruto and Naruto beamed again. The cat wore a green cargo pants with green flak jacket. The flak jacket resembles Konoha's own flak jacket but with few differences. It has the usual three scroll pockets on the each chest but with pockets and has a 360 neck guard. Surprisingly, it also comes with a hoodie. He didn't wear anything under the jacket and any footwear. His tail, Naruto realised, were bandaged.

Kenzo the cat really looks like a ninja! Is he going to teach him?

"You're his teacher now. Don't kill him," Yoruichi said and Naruto's smile slowly disappeared.

Kenzo, being larger than him towered over him and gave him a deathly glare.

"Kitten, you know that cats have nine lives right?" Yoruichi asked him. Naruto could only give a 'u-huh' as he was busy maintaining the scary eye contact between him and Kenzo, afraid that if he even blink, Kenzo would strike him down.

"Most cats that trained under Kenzo were left with only one. Since you only have one life, you better cherish it," Yoruichi smirked.

Hearing Kenzo's reputation, Naruto immediately paled. He didn't think that it was possible to feel excitedly afraid and yet happy at the same time.

Things are going to change, and he won't be weak anymore.

* * *

**Author's Note Again:** Hehehe, I used Bleach characters! For some reason I thought that they make good cats, considering that they Soul Society is like a secret society and stuff and kinda fit Nekogakure's secrecy too.

Still, with Bleach characters here, doesn't mean that I'm doing a full crossover. I'll borrow a few characters here and then for the cat characters. Maybe Cat Zaraki? And they won't have much impact to the story. Their screen time will be low and will only make cameo appearances here and there. Kenzo is my OC though.

Anyway, a little info about the Nekogakure.

The NekoNins are masters of stealth and speed (being a cat), taijutsu, ninjutsu and nintaijutsu and they are proficient with all elements and not focused on one like Suna or Kiri. Still, they preferred wind a lot, so that explains why Naruto was summoned there and less water. Genjutsu is average.

Being master of Nintaijutsu (which in Narutoverse is unique to the Raikage) would make them a very deadly opponent. Their stamina and strength is so-so however as they specialise in hit and run tactics and they are easily distracted.

Also, as they are very curious, their knowledge archive is BIG, and thus you could find almost every jutsus at Nekogakure. And of course, they would have their own Sage Mode equal.

Now, the reason why there aren't so many people with Neko summon is because Nekogakure is very hard to find. I won' tell you where, even I don't know where it is and because most people in Narutoverse tend to use inherited contracts and not by using their affinity like Naruto did in my story.

RnR people!


	2. Chapter 1: Kitten Training! First Step

**Author's Note: **Second chapter! Its training montage time! I know some of you guys like it. It would give me the chance to lay the foundation of the Nekogakure after all.

And a reader, Naginator asked me how can Yugito become the Nibi Host if there is Nekomata? Well to answer that, the Nibi inside Yugito isn't the true Nekomata. There are many ways for me to explain it but if you wanted canon source, read Naruto chapter 467 around page 14-15.

For those who don't want to read the chapter, I could also explain with my own words but it might spoil. So I will put it at the bottom of this chapter.

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**CHAPTER 1: KITTEN TRAINING ARC! PART 1: THE FIRST STEP**

Nekogakure as Naruto found out, looks a lot like Konoha except with a lot more high-rise and weird building. He didn't expect for the cats to live in an environment that mirrored humans.

Oh well.

The feline residents are much more interesting. Since being cats and all, they have different fur colors and Naruto felt like he had entered a clown town! Some cats didn't wear anything, and some would wear something like pants or shirt. The cats also are capable of walking on their hind legs but they preferred normal cat walk if they could help it. The cats here are more to werecats than anything else.

Naruto realised that all of the cats were looking at him as much as he does to them. Naruto wasn't a stranger to stares, except that their stares are a lot more different.

Full of curiosity and never a hint of hatred at all. It was refreshing for a change.

"Kenzo-san! Is everyone here a Nin?" Naruto asked the cat in front of him. They were walking down the streets of Nekogakure, going somewhere.

"In a way yes. All civilians have to enlist in the Nekogakure military for two years. This is to teach them at least basic defensive skills and chakra control. So everyone here knows how to use chakra. And after two years, they are free to become a civilian if they want to," Kenzo replied.

Naruto was amazed. They didn't do this in Konoha. You could remain a civilian and never to get involved in Konoha military at all for all of your life if that is your choice. And what's more, all the cats can use chakra!

"So...where are we going?" Naruto asked again.

"To the woods, I'm gonna lay down the foundation of being a Nin," Kenzo replied.

Naruto was shaking with excitement! Finally he's going to learn how to be a proper ninja!

A few minutes later, they were outside of Nekogakure and in their forest. Nekogakure is like an alternate version of Konoha!

"Right..." Kenzo disappeared an appeared near a tree in front of Naruto. What's more, he's stuck to the tree sideways!

"COOL!" Naruto screamed. "Teach me teach me teach me-"

Kenzo sweat dropped at his antics. Naruto IS like a kitten. Most kittens when first starting their training, they would show the exact same reaction.

"Focus," Naruto didn't hear Kenzo over his pleading.

"Focus," Naruto still didn't hear him.

Kenzo sighed and uncrossed his arm for the very first time in front of Naruto. He then crouched so that he could reach the tree he was hanging and picked a bug that was crawling along. He then flicked the bug straight into Naruto's mouth.

"Gah!" Naruto gagged, but before he could expel the poor bug, Kenzo appeared in front of him in a flash and grabbed his mouth shut.

"**Eat it**," suddenly, the surrounding went dark and Naruto could only see Kenzo's deathly glare. Naruto almost shitted his pants! He then gulped down the offensive bug and Kenzo released him.

"Whaa?" he panted. He was about to loudly complain when Kenzo shoved another bug into his mouth and repeated the event again.

Then Naruto realised why Kenzo does it. He was being loud.

"You know why I did this?" Kenzo resumed his position at the tree again. Naruto nodded.

"Good. Unless you can kill people with your loud words, **SHUT UP,**" Kenzo growled at the last part. Naruto nodded again. "But knowing you, I think it wasn't impossible,"

Naruto just scratched his head sheepishly.

Kenzo then put his hands behind his waist and start walking up and down the tree.

"Now, before I can teach you ninja skills. You must be a ninja yourself! Actions speak louder than words! Words can be taken back, but not actions. If you are strong, your actions will speak for you," Kenzo glanced at Naruto to see if he was concentrating. Seeing Naruto giving him full attention, he resumed.

"Promises are given by words, but ultimately, actions fulfil them," Naruto nodded, what Kenzo said is true. Naruto didn't give a thought back then about words and actions. He figured if he were loud enough, people would pay attention, even if it were negative.

"Actions are the bite and words are the bark!" Kenzo stopped his pacing and face Naruto. "Now, as far as I know, CATS don't BARK!"

Naruto bowed his head. All this time, he was barking for attention. It was true, and pathetic. He realised he needed to change. He then nodded furiously. He isn't Black Star (nothing against him, he is very powerful. Just that he is like Naruto) after all.

"Very good. However, it's not to say that barking is useless. Just don't do it all the time," Naruto sweat dropped at this. Kenzo just contradict himself! Well, almost.

"It also can be useful. But that is for later on," Kenzo said again.

"Now! Before I teach you Ninja skills! I must teach you The Ways of The Ninja!" Naruto nodded furiously again. Finally! It is starting!

"Tell me kitten! What is, The Ways?" Kenzo pointed a finger at him.

"Eh?" Ways of The Ninja? That sounded familiar... "I uhh..not sure?"

Kenzo flicked a bug into Naruto's mouth again. This time Naruto didn't need any warning, he gulped the offending thing quickly.

"By the way kitten, next time chew the bugs. Some bugs can survive living in your stomach if you don't chew them. And some could even make a nest inside you," Kenzo said nonchalantly. Naruto immediately pale at this.

"The Ways of The Ninja! Number...!" Kenzo then scratched his head. He then pointed to Naruto.

"Kitten, pick a number!" Naruto sweat dropped again. It looks like as if Kenzo was making this 'Ways of The Ninja' thingy.

"Um...9?" Naruto replied.

"9? Yes! The Ways of The Ninja Number 9 is..."Kenzo scratched his head again, as if forgetting what he wanted to convey.

"You're making this up aren't you!" Naruto stomped the ground and another bug flew into his mouth. Naruto then chew the poor bug quickly and swallowed them.

"No. I did not make it up...only the numbers. The Ways are real," Kenzo deadpanned. Naruto sweat dropped at this.

"The Ways of The Ninja Number 1!" Kenzo then point a finger to the air. Well, more likely to the other tree as he is hanging sideways.

"Wasn't it number 9?" Naruto said weakly.

"No, number 1 because it is important," Kenzo deadpanned again and a tick mark appeared on Naruto's forehead. What was the point of Kenzo asking Naruto just now?

"Ways of Ninja Number 1! DEEEEE-CEEEEEEPPP-TIIIIOON!" Kenzo screamed so loudly that Naruto had to cover his ears. Wow, after the lecture about Naruto being loud, Kenzo himself proved to be louder.

"Kenzo-san, you're loud!" Naruto screamed.

"Teachers have to be loud to teach. Students just need to shut up and listen!" Kenzo flicked another bug and Naruto grudgingly eat it. "Besides, you can be loud if you have something important to say," Naruto nodded meekly.

"Alright! Continue! Deception! Never show the enemy what he wanted to see! Always show your enemy what YOU-" Kenzo point his finger at him. "-wanted the enemy to see!"

"Now tell me why?" Kenzo asked.

"So that we could trick the enemy by making them think that we are weak?" Naruto replied and immediately close his mouth, afraid another bug would fly in.

"CORRECT!" Kenzo screamed.

Kenzo then appeared in front of Naruto. "**Do you know that the most dangerous thing is the one that doesn't look like it?**" Kenzo said in his Death Glare mode again.

"R-really?" Naruto gulped. As random as he is, Kenzo is scary.

"Correct! Look at this frog," Kenzo held his left palm and Naruto could see a colourful frog.

"What do you think of this frog?" Kenzo asked.

"It's beautiful!" Naruto wanted to touch it but a bug was flicked into his mouth again, stopping his advance.

"Thought so," the frog then disappeared. "Do you know that that frog is extremely poisonous? One touch and you will die **painfully**," Naruto gulped.

"It looked harmless right?" Naruto nodded. "FYI, animals with bright colors are usually poisonous, so avoid them like a plague! Well, unless you wanted to use their poison, then it's a different thing. And some colorless animals have poison too, so try and avoid them too,"

Naruto sweat dropped again. "So...avoid everything? Kinda paranoid..."

"FYI! At sea, there a jellyfish the size of my thumb-" Kenzo gave Naruto a thumbs up. "-that is almost invisible in the water and yet is able to kill an adult human painfully with a single touch of its tentacles! The horror!" Naruto sweat dropped. 'Seriously?' he thought. 'Freaking scary for something so small...'

"Speaking of paranoid, that brings us to the Ninja Ways Number 2! Always assume that anything or anyone can **kill **you regardless of how they look or act. That is because they can. When pushed too far, even weaklings can topple the strong. After all, animals are most dangerous when cornered," Kenzo gave Naruto his Death Glare again.

Naruto nodded slowly, getting Kenzo's message.

"That being said, Ninja Ways Number 3! Always look underneath the underneath! This will allow you to counter lies and deception!" Kenzo disappeared to his tree again.

"Remember the Ways. Take it to your heart, and practice them until you die," Kenzo said.

Naruto nodded. "I will Sensei! By the way, is there only three Ways?"

"No, there's a lot more. But now would be enough. On to the training!" Kenzo pumped his fist to the air.

"YEAH!" Naruto jumped. Finally! He's going to learn! "So what are we going to learn Sensei?"

"Chakra control," Kenzo flexed his claws and inspecting them. "You know what chakra does right?"

"Well..." Naruto scratched the back of his head. He didn't learn the exact nature of chakra, just what they do. "We need them to use jutsus?"

"Correct! Chakra is essentially a Phlebotinum! This world wouldn't be as it is without chakra!" Kenzo said with arms wide.

'Phlebotinum? What the heck is that?' Naruto thought.

"Check the Tvtropes Book (hehe, breaking the fourth wall a bit) for the definition at the library later," Kenzo simply said. "Anyway! Chakra allows us nins to do various things! Like breathe fire! Create water or even dirt out of thin air! Makes us faster! Stronger! Heal wounds! Even revive the dead-but-you're-a-scum-if-you-do-that!" Kenzo mouthed the last part so quickly that it sounded like a mumble.

"Cling to walls! Walk on water!" Kenzo continued before Naruto could interrupt him.

"Wait! Cling to walls? Are you using chakra to stick to the tree, Sensei?" Naruto asked.

"No, I'm using my claws," Kenzo then raised his left feet and showed it to Naruto and sure enough Naruto could see long sharp claws.

"Err..." Naruto didn't know what to say. Kenzo's answer always throw him off.

"So! We now know how important chakra is. Without chakra, we are normal people! Normal helpless people! So it is important to master it to become a great ninja!" Kenzo said with enthusiasm this time.

Kenzo then appeared in front of Naruto again. "Let's start then,"

"Hai!" Naruto replied excitedly.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Konohagakure**

Sarutobi Hiruzen is having a bad day. Not only was he swamped with paperwork that doesn't seem to end, the council also kept pestering him with useless stuff.

"Hokaga-sama! We must do this- do that-"Sarutobi said in a mock voice. "Geez!"

And then, one of the very important people to him just up and disappeared! Uzumaki Naruto had been missing for a few days now. This had never happened before. Sure, he was hated by the villagers, but they never laid a hand on him.

Sarutobi made sure of that. Slap the kid and Sarutobi will personally crush the hand does it. Throw stuff at him and Sarutobi will throw his kunai at you.

In fact, there was an assassination attempt at Naruto's life before, but Sarutobi managed to stop it before it happen. He made an example of the assassins by public execution and left their bodies at the town square for three days.

Since then, the villagers know not to harm Naruto...physically. Sarutobi can't stop the mental and emotional abuse though, because if he were to punish people for it, there won't be any of Konoha left.

Still, it could be the villagers or even his own ninja that is behind Naruto's absence. Sarutobi then made a gesture with his hand and immediately, an ANBU with Dog mask appeared.

"Dog, any news on Naruto yet?" Sarutobi asked. If he finds out that Naruto has so much of a scratch-

Dog shook his head. "No, Hokage-sama. Naruto's trace just...disappeared to thin air. The only conclusion is that Naruto was transported using a Space-Time jutsu,"

"Space-Time jutsu? Hmmm..." Sarutobi mused. Of all things, why must it be Space-Time jutsu? Space-Time jutsu are very powerful and a gamebreaker. Not many can counter it. A prime example would be the Fourth's Hiraishin jutsu that pretty much turn the tide of The Third Ninja World War.

Luckily for him, Space-Time jutsus are very few in numbers, like the Fourth's Hiraishin or Summons. So he could narrow it down to what type of jutsu used to transport Naruto. That is, if the jutsu in question is something that he knew.

"If I may add?" Sarutobi nodded at Dog. "I think that maybe Naruto...executed a summoning technique. And since he didn't have any contract scrolls with him, he got summoned instead,"

"Plausible. But the question is...where was he summoned to?" Sarutobi asked. Kakashi could only shake his head in reply.

'Naruto, please be safe,' Sarutobi prayed.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Nekogakure**

"Achoo!" Naruto sneezed hard and immediately, sent the leaf he was concentrating on his forehead with chakra to fly away.

"You got a cold?" Kenzo asked in concern. Naruto didn't get sick from all the bugs that he had fed him, didn't he? He hoped not.

"Nah, I think that someone just talked about me," Naruto replied and immediately took another leaf to resume his training.

"Speaking of which, don't you want to go home?" Kenzo asked. The leaf that was hovering above Naruto's head floated down and touched his forehead.

"I...I'm not sure," Naruto replied weakly. He honestly liked it here more than Konoha. In fact, he was afraid that if he return, he might not be able to come back to Nekogakure.

"Kitten, within you is something that could not be taken lightly. Your disappearance could cause an uproar," Kenzo said.

"More like a celebration," Naruto scoffed.

"Not to the people that cares. Not to the people that you supposedly said you wanted to protect," Kenzo said in a stern voice. Naruto's eyes went wide at this revelation and he looked away.

"I suppose..."

"Don't worry Kitten, I'll make sure that you can return here," Kenzo said in his normal voice.

Naruto beamed at this. "Really?"

"Of course! You think that only you humans can do summons? We'll make a contract, and later, I will summon you back here for training," Kenzo replied with a smile.

"Alright! Why didn't you say so earlier? Then let's go back to Konoha for a while," Naruto got up and pumped his fist to the air. He really missed ramen. He hadn't had the chance to explore Nekogakure to see if they have any.

"On second thought, let's just send them a letter saying you're fine. It's a loooong way from here to Konoha anyway,"Kenzo deadpanned again.

Naruto's jaw dropped to the floor at this. He didn't know if Kenzo were doing this to him intentionally or not, but he really is good at pulling his leg!

"Now resume your training. I'm gonna nap for a while. Oh and don't leave me. Mayuri might find you and you might return differently. **Literally**" Kenzo Death Glared at the last part. Naruto nodded and resumed his training.

An hour later...

Naruto could safely claim that he is now a master at levitating leaves. Not only that, he could make the leaf do tricks, like spinning it around , or doing flips, or at that one time, shoot off like a bullet to parts unknown. It was cool.

"YOSH!" Naruto pumped his fist.

"Very good," Kenzo said from behind and startled Naruto.

"Gah! Sensei, you woke up?" Naruto asked his cat teacher.

"Who wouldn't after hearing your 'YOSH'?" Kenzo imitate Naruto's previous action.

"Sorry," Naruto sweat dropped. Kenzo just waved his hand.

"It's fine. About time really. I didn't expect you to be able master the basic basic level this quick," Naruto titled his head at this. 'Basic basic?'

"So! Time to move to the basic advanced level of the leaf concentration training!" Kenzo said. 'Oh, that's what he meant,' Naruto thought and nodded.

"This time, you will concentrate on the leaf...while under fire," Kenzo said with a devious smile.

'Uh-oh, this can't be good,' Naruto thought with a dread.

A few minutes later...

"GAH! SENSEI!" Naruto screamed. It turns out that the basic advanced training consisted of Naruto having to concentrate on the leaf while being distracted by Kenzo.

And the distraction varies...from being pelted with stones, crawling bugs and worms or even pants pulling!

Kenzo shook his head in disapproval with a 'tch,tch' after seeing the leaf float away. "What's the point of doing this?" Naruto asked his somewhat crazy teacher.

"Naruto, do you know the types of chakra consumption?" Kenzo asked and Naruto scrunched his face. He really didn't like the Q and A session with Kenzo. If he got it wrong, he would have to eat bugs. But he won't progress if he didn't.

"Urm...one time use and constant use?" Naruto replied. He had observed some ninja with constant chakra usage before. Especially the wall clinging variety.

"Correct! We would call it Instant and Constant consumption!" Kenzo gave him a smile. "Instant consumption is much simpler as it only use the amount of chakra needed per use. For example, say that you have 100 % chakra and use used a jutsu that requires 10% chakra per use. You use the jutsu one time, you would left with 90% chakra, use it again and you would have 80% chakra left,"

Naruto nodded at this. He understood it.

"Instant are more to temporary jutsus. However, Constant consumption is much harder," Kenzo continued. Constant will, like its name constantly drains chakra for as long as the jutsu is active over time,"

"How long you could keep Constant consumption is up to you. It is different from Instant use as you would only need to focus for the time it is required to cast the jutsu. But with Constant, you need to focus all the time to keep it up," Kenzo explained.

"Do you get what I'm trying to say here?" Kenzo asked. Naruto eye's then went wide.

"I see! If I lose focus, then I wouldn't keep Constant consumption up!" Kenzo smiled and nodded his head. Naruto understood why Kenzo keeps distracting him. It was to see if he could keep his focus.

"Good. If you mastered Constant then you wouldn't have any problem with Instant at all. Besides, most advanced jutsus require Constant anyway," Kenzo then turn around. "Let's go, it's late. Oh, and keep doing your leaf training. You will do it while doing other daily tasks like eating,"

Naruto's mouth opened wide at this. "Seriously?"

"Or do you prefer me harassing you while you're training?" Kenzo said with a smirk. Naruto had a horrified look on his face and he shook his head furiously.

Naruto then resumed his leaf floating and followed Kenzo back to Nekogakure.

While Naruto didn't learn any cool jutsus today, he understood that the basics are much much more important. A thousand miles journey begins with a single step after all.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **The Ways of Ninja is similar to Ninja Rules, except that they are more to a way of life than rules. That being said, I decided to make few of my own and I think that it fit nicely with Nekogakure. There will be more but I will list them after they appear.

Ways of Ninja 1: Deception! Show the enemy what YOU wanted for them to see. It is because the most dangerous thing is the one that doesn't look like it.

Ways of Ninja 2: Always assume that anything or anyone can kill you! Because they can.

Ways of Ninja 3: To counter deception, always see underneath the underneath!

Also, as Naruto's chakra mechanics is similar to mana in videogames, it will only make sense to have different consumptions like mana usage over time and mana usage per use. So I decided to name it Instant and Constant. Seeing as Nintaijutsu kinda use Constant, it makes sense for Naruto to master it.

**Warning!** Explanation below is for the Naginator question above and is spoileriffic! So only read them at your own risk!

**SPOILER START**

In canon, the Beasts are actually the chakra separated from another powerful being, the Ten Tails. At first having no form and physical body (the body of the Ten Tails is at the moon), the Sage then give them the forms of mythical beasts like the Nekomata, Kyuubi Kitsune and so on. And that is why I think that the Tailed Beasts aren't originally what their represent. Like the Nibi isn't actually Nekomata, but modeled like a Nekomata.

Even so, I believe that there isn't just one Nekomata or Kyuubi and so on. There will be many spread around the world. Just like in the anime where Sasuke has to fight a Nekomata (I know, anime, but still it get my point across).

**SPOILER END**


	3. Chapter 2: Revelations and Acceptance

**CHAPTER 2: KITTEN TRAINING ARC! PART 2: REVELATIONS AND ****ACCEPTANCE**

Life was starting to feel good for Naruto. He, for once, woke up feeling cheerful and not like the previous days where he would felt dread going through the day.

Naruto, in the few days he is at Nekogakure, shared an apartment with Kenzo, his black-fur and at times annoying-but-always right cat teacher. He never shared a house with someone before. He would always come home to his apartment alone. To Naruto, Kenzo is the cool and awesome older brother that he never had.

"Kitten come on, we're gonna get breakfast and then meet the Boss," Kenzo said.

The Boss here means the Nekomata. His name is Yoruichi, which sounds like a woman's name. He is the leader and as such the Kage of Nekogakure. The Nekogake? Close enough.

Naruto got up to get ready for the day, all the time with a leaf floating on his forehead with Kenzo observing his student. Naruto's progess is astounding. Now, he could almost do anything with the leaf on his forehead all the time! He could eat, read and doing other stuff with the leaf without much difficulty. Granted that he couldn't sleep with the leaf floating, but who could? And he still has difficulty maintaining the leaf under embarrassing or painful situations, but that can be fixed.

Still, what's more surprising is the amount of stamina he has. Normally, kittens around Naruto's age couldn't hold the leaf for half a day. But he did it all day. Well, granted that cats don't have much stamina when compared to other species, but still impressive. Kenzo knew that he holds the strongest Tailed Beast inside him and that might have influenced him a bit. The leaf had somewhat became his fashion accessory now.

"Let's go Kenzo-san!" Naruto beamed with the leaf on his forehead. It looks funny, a bit.

After a good meal, which Naruto was disappointed that it wasn't ramen, but still good nevertheless, they were now in front of Yoruichi. Naruto managed to find a ramen stand but as he expected, it wasn't as good as Ichiraku's ramen. Still, Kenzo stated that he couldn't eat the thing for breakfast. Naruto figured that it was his fault. For the past few days they have been eating ramen all the time and Kenzo must have developed a hatred for the thing by now.

"I see his training is progressing quite well," Yoruichi said, eating cereal from a very large bowl filled with milk.

"Yes, he is. Naruto now is known as Leaf Head by the villagers," Kenzo deadpanned.

"Hey!" Naruto pouted. The leaf training was normal for the cats, but they didn't do it all the time, which Naruto does.

Yoruichi laughed at this. "Maybe that could be your codename in the future?"

"No! Not that! I want a cool codename!" Naruto looked horrified.

"Leaf Head it is," Kenzo said with a smirk. Naruto 'gah'! at this. Kenzo and Yoruichi seemed to have a kick at torturing him.

"Alright, back to business," Yoruichi resumed his breakfast. "I'm going to Konoha to have a chat with your Hokage about you Naruto,"

"Oh...sorry if it troubles you," Naruto said with a sad voice.

"It is," Yoruichi honestly replied and Naruto looked even sadder at this. "But, good things are always worth the trouble. Like they said, easy come, easy go. Hard to get, harder to let go,"

Naruto looked happier at this. It was strange and ironic, that he felt much more at home with cats than with his own kind. "Thank you Yoruichi-sama. I'm indebted to you,"

"Of course you are! Remember that, 'cause I will be claiming it later," Yoruichi gave Naruto a devilish grin and Naruto gulped at this. The thing that he learned about the Nekokage is that he always has some kind of ulterior motive.

"Anyway, I would like to bring you along, but since you're not really fit for travel quickly yet, I will just use your method," Yoruichi continued.

"My method? You mean Summoning?" Naruto said with a quizzed look.

"Yep! You will make a Contract with both Kenzo and-" Yoruichi snapped her fingers and an orange cat wearing a black kimono with a giant katana on his back appeared. "-Ichigo here. I will go to Konoha with him along with Soi Fon and once we arrived Ichigo will summon you,"

Naruto understood the plan and nodded.

Naruto walked towards Ichigo the orange cat and held his right arm to shake his hand. Ichigo took it, "Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you,"

"Kurosaki Ichigo, same," he replied with somewhat bored tone.

"You should be careful with him, Leaf Head. He's crazy," Kenzo said.

"I'm not crazy! I just have a Mutiple Personality Disorder!" Ichigo replied angrily.

"Rigghtt...and your other 'Personality'-" Kenzo air quoted. "Isn't a psycho himself?"

"**You got a problem with me, huh?" **Ichigo said in a different voice. It was demonic and sinister. His eyes also changed from normal cat eyes to black iris with golden slitted pupils. This shocked Naruto and he immediately took a step backwards.

"See," Kenzo said nonchalantly.

Ichigo then gripped and shook his head. "Fuck! Kenzo dammit! Don't rouse Hichigo!" Ichigo said loudly. "Sorry, that's my other personality. Still trying to control him though," Ichigo then smiled at Naruto to ease his fear.

"Ookay..." Naruto replied. "So let's do the contract!"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Right," Kenzo said. They were now back at the training grounds. "It will take some time before they get to Konoha, so let's resume the training,"

Naruto nodded. "What will we be doing Sensei?"

"Chakra control again, but this time in other forms," Kenzo replied. "I've told you before that chakra has a variety of uses and not just limited to jutsu, correct?"

Naruto nodded again. "For example, your leaf training, can be applied to real life situations. For example, take a pebble and flick it at my forehead," Kenzo said.

Naruto gave a quizzed look. "What? This might be your chance to avenge all the bug eatings I made you did," Kenzo said again.

"Nooooo, as much as tempting it sounds, there's an ulterior motive isn't it?" Naruto narrowed his eyes at his teacher.

"Nice! I see you've practiced Ways Number 3! Congrats!" Kenzo said with a smile. "Besides I said chance right? It's not like I will let you hit my head with a pebble,"

Naruto grumbled and took a pebble from the ground and flicked it to his Sensei's forehead. To his surprise, the pebble stopped short and floated in front of Kenzo's forehead.

Naruto understood now. It's just like his leaf training, except this time with pebble. "Do you know its application? You could stop or deflect projectiles that are thrown at you," Kenzo said. The pebble then dropped to the floor but before it was even halfway through, Kenzo flicked it towards Naruto.

Naruto immediately concentrated chakra on his forehead to intercept the projectile but it got through and he fell to the floor with a 'gah!' "You're supposed to do the same as I did, Kitten,"

"I did!" Naruto got back to his feet. A small red dot can be seen on his forehead.

"Oh...I might have flicked it too hard then," Kenzo deadpanned. "But it also brings up a good point! Just because you could block it, doesn't mean you should!"

"You mean that I should avoid attacks right?" Kenzo nodded.

"The defensive skill we both did just now is only good against normal and weak projectiles. Projectiles that have sufficient strength or laced with chakra or even elemental chakra can pierce through," Kenzo explained.

"So it should be used as an emergency then?" Kenzo nodded again.

"That also brings us to another fact about attacks. It doesn't matter if your attacks are incredibly or ridiculously powerful, but if it doesn't hit then it is useless," Kenzo said and Naruto nodded.

"That means that evading is much more beneficial, right?" Naruto said.

"Correct. Even if you are invincible, evasion will still help you in the long run," Kenzo replied. "However, evasion is often used to save your own skin. To help others, sometimes, you will need to block or intercept the attacks than avoiding them,"

"Understood," Naruto replied.

Kenzo suddenly perked his ears up as if realising something. "That brings us to Ways of Ninja Number 4! Never depend on something too much. If you do, you will be in trouble when that something doesn't work. Also related is Ways of Ninja Number 5! There are time and place for everything! Learn how to recognize it and use it efficiently,"

"Like being loud?" Naruto smiled.

"Yes, like that," Kenzo flicked another pebble at him but this time Naruto stopped it.

"Oh and Ways of Ninja Number 6! Just because you can, it doesn't mean you should!" Kenzo said loudly.

"Look who's talking,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Konohagakure – Few days later**

Sarutobi was deathly worried now. He didn't receive any news from Naruto at all, wherever he is. He managed to keep his disappearance under wraps for now, but sooner or later, everyone will start asking.

Dog, one of his most trusted ANBU personnel suggested that Naruto was in the homeland of a summoning species but they didn't know which species Naruto was transported to. What's worse is that they didn't know if the species is hostile or not or even had the ability to send messages which might explain Naruto's lack of response.

He didn't want to think that the worst case scenario had happened, but as a professional, he couldn't help it. It also didn't help that his crystal ball only works within the boundaries of Konoha.

Suddenly, there's a knock at his door. Sarutobi allowed entrance and his secretary appeared. "Yes?"

"Forgive me Hokage-sama. There's an important convoy that wished to speak you about urgent matters," his secretary said.

"Who are the convoy and what is it?" Sarutobi said nonchalantly. It was normal for people to come to him with 'urgent matters'. Yes, they are urgent, but mostly only for themselves. Like the council for example.

"They are...cats from Nekogakure and they wish to speak to you about a certain Uzumaki," she said.

Sarutobi's eyes went wide at this. Finally! Kami has answered his prayers! "Let them in!"

The secretary bowed and allowed three cats to enter. They are the size of normal cats however, Sarutobi was sure that they Henged themselves for easier blend in with Konoha's people. It wouldn't do good to see human size cats walking around the streets.

"Hokage-sama, I am Yoruichi Shihohuin, the Nekomata and the Nekokage of Nekogakure," Yoruichi bowed a little to Sarutobi. "And this is Kurosaki Ichigo and Soi Fon," he motioned to the orange and black cat with white spots around beside him.

"Please, make yourselves comfortable," Sarutobi motioned them to his guest seats. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Milk," Yoruichi said. "Tea," Soi Fon added. "Orange juice," Ichigo said.

Sarutobi nodded and called for his secretary to fulfil the orders.

A few minutes later the orders arrived. Sarutobi thought that they would drink from the cups like normal cats would do but to his surprise, they drink like a human.

"Surprised?" Yoruichi smirked.

"Yes, you could say that. This is a rare sight for me," Sarutobi replied.

"Of course, we NekoNins aren't that famous after all," Yoruichi said.

"Indeed. In fact, I was surprised knowing that Nekogakure even existed at all. Please forgive me, it's just that there aren't many records about your village and your people," Sarutobi said carefully. What he said now might make or break a lot of situation and not just with Naruto.

"Yes, well, it is not your fault. In fact, we're kinda proud being anonymous and mysterious. Cats are after all, mysterious, are they not?" Yoruichi smirked. Sarutobi flashed a smile. "That and our village are quite hard to reach and make it difficult for people to make contracts with us. Add to the fact that most contracts are heredity,"

"I agree, it is quite rare for people to perform Summoning without contracts, and even if they did, the chances for them to land in Nekogakure are quite low, correct?" Sarutobi explained.

Yoruichi smiled. Now they're going to talk about Naruto next. "Which is how Naruto appeared at my doorstep,"

Sarutobi nodded. "How is he?"

"Fine. In fact, from the way he acts, he's in a much much better condition at Nekogakure than at here,"

They didn't talk for minutes and just stared at each other. "Can I speak to him?" Sarutobi broke the silence.

"Will you take him away?"

"I have the rights to it,"

"It is by his choice to leave,"

"Even so, I want to hear it from him,"

Silence again. "Fine, he wanted to meet you anyway," Yoruichi broke the silence this time. "Kitten, do it,"

Ichigo tched, and prepared to summon Naruto.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Nekogakure**

It turns out that the other forms of chakra control training were tree climbing and water walking. The lesson is how to mould chakra at the feet instead of at the hand or forehead. It was hard at first as the farther away from the hand the harder it is to mould chakra and the feet, being the farthest, proved to be difficult.

When the tree climbing exercise came for the first time, Naruto was thoroughly excited that Kenzo had to flick bugs at him again. Finally! Something cool for him to learn!

Naruto learned that the amount of chakra has to be appropriate for the tree climbing. Too little and the chakra wouldn't be able hold your weight against gravity and you will fall. Too much, and you will destroy the trees. It wouldn't do good to destroy your walking surface. Still Naruto had managed to pull it off lest than a day thanks to his constant leaf practice.

The next was water walking. This time it was ten times harder than tree climbing. This is because for tree climbing, you need to apply the correct and constant amount of chakra as the surface composition didn't change. For water climbing however, you need to apply the correct chakra amount that constantly changes. It was really hard. But he managed to pull it off, albeit he can only walk slowly above water.

"Very good," Kenzo said. "With enough practice you could run or even surf the water without much effort,"

Naruto's mouth was ready to ask about the water surfing but Kenzo cut him. "Come here,"

Naruto pouted and walked away from the river into land again.

"Now I'm going to teach you the Ways of Ninja Number 7! Everything is a tool! Everything and anything can be used!" Kenzo screamed loudly. He always get excited when explaining about the Ways.

"For example! You know shurikens right?" Naruto nodded. Kenzo then flashed through a series of handseals and in a puff of smoke, he was replaced by a log.

Naruto titled his head at this. 'Body Replacement? Why would he do it when no one is attacking him?'

Kenzo then appeared beside the log. "Now," Kenzo showed a large amount of leaves in his hand. "We could even use this as shurikens," Chakra flared through the leaves and Kenzo kicked the log high into the air. He then throws the leaves towards the log without even looking at it.

The log then fell in front of Naruto with a thud and Naruto could see the leaves had embedded itself into the wood. "Awesome!"

"Of course. Even though its killing potential is quite low, it can still harm," Kenzo stated.

"But! When I said that everything is a tool that can be used, there exists the ultimate tool!" Kenzo pointed a finger to the air.

Naruto beamed at this at the prospect of an ultimate undefeatable tool. "What is it?"

"Ways of Ninja Number 0! The ultimate tool is knowledge! Keep it sharp as what you don't know and don't understand can and will kill you!" Kenzo screamed.

Naruto was a little disappointed. 'Figures, thought that it was a cool sword that he can pass on to me or something. But he's right,' "That's why it is Number 0 is it? Because it is very important?"

Kenzo nodded. "However, this also brings us to the Ways Number 8 that is related to Ways Number 7! Anything that can be used against your enemy can also be used against you!"

Naruto nodded and understood the message.

"Now! The next training is related to Ways Number 9! A ninja's home is everywhere! Master the environment and use it to your advantage!" Kenzo stated loudly.

Naruto's shoulders dropped a bit. He knew where this is going. "You're gonna make me stay in the forest aren't you?"

Kenzo smirked. "Now now Kitten, it is training,"

'Grr...teacher's with their 'training pass'. They could give us nonsensical crap and pass it off as training,' Naruto thought.

"But don't-" Kenzo was about to finish when Naruto was gone in a puff of smoke. "Oh? Is it time already? Lucky him,"

**$#$#$#$$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Konoha – Hokage Office**

Sarutobi watched as Ichigo executed the Summoning an in a puff of smoke, Naruto appeared. He then swiftly got up and hugged him before he could do anything.

"Grandpa," Naruto said.

"Why did you go?" Sarutobi released the hug and said softly.

"You know why Gramps," Naruto said with a stern voice and glared at Sarutobi.

Sarutobi sighed. "I'm tired of people blaming me for things that I never committed. I'm tired for being weak and not able to defend myself and others!" Naruto continued.

"Can we have our privacy, please?" Sarutobi asked his cat guest. Yoruichi nodded the cats went out of the room. "You must understand Naruto-"

"No! Enough with the sugar coating! Enough with the lies for the sake of protecting me!" Naruto cut in. "I'm not dumb as you adults think I 'am! I know about the Kyuubi! I want the truth! You owe me that much!"

Sarutobi was shocked at this outburst and Naruto's sudden intelligence. He thought he could withhold the truth until he was 14. But alas, having the Kyuubi inside of you and treated harshly tends to mature you rapidly.

'He really is his father's son,' Sarutobi thought and he then relaxed himself. He knew he has to tell everything tonight. "I just don't know why my father does this to me. And why my mother didn't even stop it,"

Sarutobi was shocked again. Looks like Naruto had done his own research.

Sarutobi then motioned for Naruto to seat. Naruto did and Sarutobi went to his own. "So you knew who your father is?"

"I'm even more surprised that people couldn't even relate me to him. I mean...spiky blonde hair! The similarity is uncanny!" Naruto said loudly.

"Well, I think we have the whisker marks to blame," Sarutobi flashed a small smile.

"I blame the fox for everything," Sarutobi sighed.

"Naruto-kun, you can't blame the fox either. It wasn't his fault to attack Konoha, he was controlled," Sarutobi replied and Naruto glared at him again.

"What? Then who is to blame for everything that happened? Who?" Naruto got to his feet, seething. It's like having captured the criminal that murdered your family in cold blood and ten years later he was innocent! It was ridiculous.

"Blaming won't get us anywhere-"

"But the people blamed me! And I'm innocent!"

"So is the Kyuubi. You're becoming like the villagers now, Naruto," Sarutobi shot him a glare. Naruto looked away and slumped back to his seat.

"Naruto-kun, before you come to a conclusion about everything, please hear me out first," Sarutobi begged. Naruto turned to look at him again and nodded. "And please don't interrupt me,"

"You're mother, Kushina Uzumaki was the previous Host for the Kyuubi and your father is Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage. They both loved you, even before you were born," Naruto scoffed at this.

"The thing is about being a Host is that, especially if you're a woman, is the seal that traps the Beast weakens severely during childbirth," Naruto's eyes went wide at this.

"Great, so me being born is the start isn't it?" Naruto said in a low voice. Sarutobi narrowed his eyes at this but, it was the truth.

"I didn't say that the seal would be destroyed. It wouldn't have if it wasn't for the outside interference," Sarutobi continued.

"It's the one that controls the Kyuubi, isn't it?" Sarutobi nodded.

"However, he is gone now for the moment. As of why your parents do what they did, they believe that if anyone who could tame the Kyuubi and use its power for good, it is you. In fact, I'm glad that it was you. Had it been any other child, who knows what would have happened," Sarutobi reached to his desk drawer.

"Your parents believed in you, in fact-" Sarutobi then took out a scroll and handed it to Naruto. "-they left their final word for you incase something happened during your birth,"

Naruto took the scroll, but didn't open it. "I want you to read it at your home later," Naruto nodded.

"Now about the way you were treated Naruto, I'm sorry," Sarutobi said with a sad look. "I couldn't give you to anyone because I couldn't trust them enough not to kill you,"

"I had to keep your heritage a secret as your father has a lot of enemies outside of Konoha, so that's why the villagers didn't know about it. Had they known, they would have treated you better,"

Naruto perked up at this. "A lot of people died that day, including the clans, and my own wife. Trust me; had she been alive, I would've taken you in. But, I couldn't raise you alone. If I give you to a normal couple, who knows what they would do to you in the names of revenge? They could poison you and I couldn't be there quick enough to help you,"

"And even if they do love you, they would suffer the same treatment that you've been through and they might...crack under the pressure. And the clans...I told you right that even the clans lost a lot people that day?" Naruto nodded.

"And some of the clans are...quite demented. The Uchiha after the Kyuubi attack, the people blamed them for it and they got segregated from the rest of Konoha. Giving you to them would make it only worse to both the clan and to you. The Hyuugas, do you know that they put seals on their own family members? Seals that could kill you in an instant," Naruto had a horrified look.

"And even if you were given to clans that could care for you, the villagers would be even angrier at you. You, who were given clan privilege and status after what you have done...not that you did anything," Sarutobi smiled.

"So I put you among the civilians so that they could see that you are just a kid and not a demon," Sarutobi said weakly.

"And I worked quite well doesn't it?" Naruto shot back.

"Not quite well but it does work, doesn't it?" Sarutobi said with a smile. Naruto was furious but before he could say anything Sarutobi cut him. "Ayame-san and Teuchi-san accepted you, did they not? And I know, the number is quite small but still, it is better than nothing,"

Naruto calmed down again. While it is true that Naruto wished the numbers could be bigger, but he was grateful that at least there is something.

"Also, I do this because I wanted you to understand the pains of being a Host," Naruto gave Sarutobi a quizzed look. "Yes, there are others. And they do suffer the same experiences you went through. Had you had a normal carefree life, you wouldn't understand the pain that they all went through and you will see them not as a human, but demons like the villagers. I want you to understand them,"

"So...in the end, you think that all the pain that I went through is justified? That it will make me into a better person?" Naruto said sadly. So all these time, the pain that he had been through was deliberate.

"I'm not proud nor happy to say it Naruto, but yes," Naruto looked at Sarutobi sadly. "The sad truth about being human is that...it is easier for them to relate with each other through pain. That it is easier to hate than to love, easier to punish than to forgive. That is why the villagers hated you, because it is easier. In their pain of losing their loved ones, they all related to each other to hate you. That is human. And...I wanted you to understand that, and I wanted for you to break the cycle. That people can understand each other though love and not pain, "

Naruto had his head bowed and Sarutobi could tell that he was sad. "Naruto, please forgive me...had I been stronger, I wouldn't be here. Your parents would be here," Naruto looked up to Sarutobi and he could see...guilt.

"Your parent was the greatest seal masters in their time. Had I been more experienced in the art of sealing...it is the duty of the old to perish for their young. Not the other way around," Naruto could see tears streaked across Sarutobi's face. "Please forgive me,"

And then Naruto understood that as much he was hurt, so was the others. That he wasn't the only one in pain, but others too. 'So this is what Grandpa meant,'

Tears also started to fall from Naruto as he got up and hugged Sarutobi.

"I understand, Grandpa, I understand. There's nothing for me to forgive you. You did your best," Naruto said through his tears.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Sarutobi had Dog take Naruto to the Namikaze estate, back to his rightful home so that he can read his parent's last words in peace. He then motioned for the cat guests to come back in.

"I'm sorry that you had to wait for so long," Sarutobi apologized

"I didn't mind. We got free food for the wait!" Yoruichi replied. Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at this.

"Right...back to business," Sarutobi said. "Now, if Naruto wants to return to Nekogakure, I don't mind. But, he will still be a Konoha ninja and he would have to return once in a while. It would be bad if he lost his...'human touch',"

"I understand. It would be bad if he harboured an intense dislike for humans," Yoruichi replied.

"I take it that you understand about his status?" Sarutobi asked sternly.

"Of course! We cats are curios after all." Yoruichi smirked. "Don't worry, I won't use him to do anything bad. I would like for Nekogakure to retain their anonymousness and to remain hidden to the world at large,"

Sarutobi nodded. "Still, if you look at, it's like we're doing you a service by training Naruto," Yoruichi added.

Sarutobi smiled at this. "Of course, your service will be paid for. What would you ask for payment?"

Yoruichi flashed his devilish smile.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Namikaze Estate**

Naruto and Dog arrived at the Namikaze estate and Naruto was very surprised. The estate was HUGE! A whole clan could leave here!

"Yeah, you're parents are filthy rich," Dog said. Naruto nodded and they started to explore around the place. It was complete with fish pond, dojo, library, a lot of rooms and so on. It was amazing.

"I'm sorry," Dog suddenly said. "For what happened to you,"

Naruto looked up to him and saw that he had removed his mask. Strangely enough he wore mask that covers his mouth and nose. He could see his forehead protector covered his left eye and he has silver spiky hair.

"My name is Hatake Kakashi and your father was my sensei. He taught me a lot of things that changed me for the better. He is a good man and he would never do something without a good reason," Kakashi explained.

Naruto nodded. They then arrived at peculiar room beside the master room. Then Naruto realised that it was a baby room. His room. It has a crib with numerous baby toys around the room. Naruto felt sad. This room, his parents could be here six years ago, looking at him sleeping and playing with him.

Kakashi realised this and quietly left. Naruto entered the room and opened the scroll that was given to him.

_Dear Naruto,_

_This is your father, Minato Namikaze writing. Anyway, when I was writing this, I hoped that you wouldn't need to read this. But, in case you did, then the worst case scenario had happened._

_This letter was made in the event that the Kyuubi had escaped from your mother, its host, during your birth and I had to seal the Kyuubi into you, Naruto. Now, you might question my reasons for doing so but I can explain it. _

_The Tailed Beasts can be killed but it would take a lot of effort to do so and even if it was killed, it will only reappear again. The only viable way to control the Tailed Beasts effectively is to seal it. However, the seals that hold them would be severely weakened during childbirth and normally, having a Tailed Beast escape from a Host would result in their death, which in case, your mother might. However, your mother, Kushina Uzumaki is a very strong and stubborn woman, and I have faith that she would survive it._

_I could seal it back into your mother as after being severely weakened from childbirth and had the Kyuubi escaped from her it would no doubt kill her. This would be the same as killing the Kyuubi and thus, pointless. I cannot bear the thought of you...and me living without her. _

_So I did the best I could do. To sacrifice myself to seal the Kyuubi into you. A mother's love is much more important than a father's and she could give you much more than I could Naruto. And I know that your mother would throw a hissy fit over what I done, but it is a man's duty to protect women, sexist or not._

_The truth is, I could use another person but I had confidence that you could tame the Kyuubi like what Killer Bee did and use its power for good. I know that you would, because you are my son and I had confidence in you._

_I'm proud of you. Because to me, you are a hero. Not everyone can bear the burden of being a Host. But I believe you can because you are my son. _

_I hope that you can forgive me, and even if you can't, I hope that you would still love me._

_Because I do, always._

_Yours truly, _

_Minato Namikaze._

Hot tears streamed down across Naruto's cheek as he finished reading the scroll and hugged the scroll to his chest. "What's there to forgive you for, dad? And yes, I love you..." Naruto said to one in particular.

After a few minutes of gathering himself, he read another scroll that was his mother's.

_Dear Naruto,_

_This is your mother, Kushina Uzumaki writing. I prayed and prayed that you wouldn't need to read this, but if you do. I'm sorry._

_I'm sure that you would have known what had happened either through your father, Sarutobi or worse, through your father's letter._

_In any case, I couldn't be there for you but I would like to give some tips in life. Don't be a picky eater, and eat your vegetables. And eat a lot! So you would grow strong. Take a bath every day, at least twice, please? Keep yourself warm and don't stay up late at night and get enough sleep, but not too much!_

_Make good friends. You don't need a lot, just a few that you could really trust. I wasn't good at studying but study hard and be like your dad! Study especially ninjutsu and genjutsu (they are always a bitch) and always respect your senseis and senpais. _

_Oh and one more thing. About the three ninja vices, save the money you get from missions, you could spend them later when you retire. For alcohol, DO NOT TOUCH until 20. I preferred if you don't touch it at all but if you do, take it easy. _

_And as for woman, I don't really get it myself as I'm a woman (your dad is having a laughing fit as I'm writing this), but you will find yourself interested in women. So don't go for the strange ones, in the ninja world there are lots. So find a good one like me! Okay?_

_I'm really sorry that I couldn't be there with you to see you grow up. What would I give to be with you and Minato again. _

_But I want you to know that I love you with all of my heart, always. Me and your father always love you unconditionally._

_Your mother,_

_Kushina Uzumaki_

_P.S: Since you will be the last Uzumaki, do me a favour? Try and revive the Uzumaki clan 'wink' 'wink.'_

_P.P.S: Your father is having a laughing fit again at me writing my subtle wink into this. He is so not having 'any' for the week!_

Naruto cried again but this time with a small laugh at his mother's antics. He shook his head and hugged the scrolls again. "Thank you mom, I love you too. Thank you, mom and dad and I love you both,"

Naruto went to sleep peacefully that night at the master's bedroom while hugging the scroll. His demons finally defeated and his past was finally cleared.

He knew that he will have to work harder to make his parents proud. And he vowed that he will.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Now a lot of people complained that Sarutobi Hiruzen was weak, that he let Naruto suffered when he could do much better. Well, I believed that Hiruzen had his motives for doing so and in this chapter, my Hiruzen explains it so. It's a lot into physiological stuff but yeah. I mean, a Naruto that lived a perfect life wouldn't understand what Gaara had been through, wouldn't he?

Anyway, this chapter is a bit emotional but this ends Naruto's Kitten Training Arc! Next chapter is the time skip to the genin exams! Finally! Naruto now is able to show all of his hard work!

And please review people! Having **reviews** is like a good crack, you'll just want more and more! And it will do a lot of good to me.

Anyway, Ways of Ninja!

Ways of Ninja 0: The ultimate tool is knowledge! Keep it sharp as what you don't know and don't understand can and will kill you!

Ways of Ninja 4: Never depend on something too much. If you do, you will be in trouble when that something doesn't work .

Ways of Ninja 5: There are time and place for everything! Learn how to recognize it and use it efficiently.

Ways of Ninja 6: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!

Ways of Ninja 7: Everything is a tool! Everything and anything can be used!

Ways of Ninja 8: Anything that can be used against your enemy can be used against you.

Ways of Ninja 9: A ninja's home is everywhere! Master the environment and use it to your advantage!


	4. Chapter 3: Genin Exam! Catfights

**Author's Note: **Yosh! Finally I get to show off my smart and strong Naruto! And after three chapters devoid of fighting, this chapter finally has it! I had fun writing this chapter, as I get to show the variety of jutsus I thought, although not all of them are original. Jutsu explanation will be at the second A/N.

On with the story! Oh yeah, Yugito and Naruto finally meets! Please read and review, people!

* * *

**CHAPTER 3: GENIN EXAM ARC! PART 1: CATFIGHTS**

**Nekogakure Forest**

A twelve year old Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki was hiding among the trees, his camouflage suit hiding him well. The suit he wore consisted of a forest camo cargo pants with matching hoodie jacket. His hoodie was up, hiding his bright yellow hair from sticking out. He also wore a cat shaped mask with forest pattern on it. To normal by passers, he is invisible, and that's how he likes it.

He didn't move at all, just sticking to the top trunk of a tree using kunais. He didn't want to use chakra to stick to the tree, as it can give his postion away. He has been waiting and observing his surroundings for the hours now. He was trying to find any weird movements around the forest that could be the enemy's. Movements like a moving tree or foliage and the like. After all, his enemy is also invisible in the forest like him, as they are hunter assassins. Either he will become the hunter or the hunted.

Suddenly, the forest shook with a tremor. Naruto didn't move at all. He knew what was happening. His teammate Kurosaki Ichigo was fighting Zaraki Kenpachi. Normally, as a good teammate, he would have helped him, but Zaraki Kenpachi has specifically stated that no one is to help either of them or they will face his wrath. And Zaraki Kenpachi isn't the type of person you wanted to cross.

Naruto then could see two figures appearing as they clashed their blades at each other. He could see his teammate, Ichigo, an orange cat wearing a black haori swinging his giant meat cleaver at the man in front of him. The man is none other than the aforementioned Zaraki Kenpachi. He is a large towering cat sporting an extremely spiky black fur hair with numerous pointed tips that no doubt, could poke someone's eye out. On the hair tips was numerous bells that rings happily with every movement that he makes. His hairstyle is quite...weird for a cat. He also wore an eye patch over an eye making him look like a clown pirate cat.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! MORE!" Zaraki said in manic delight as Ichigo's blade made a cut across his torso. That cat is famous for his blood thirst. He loves to fight worthy opponents and would go to great lengths to enjoy it such as even fighting his own allies. And of course, Nekogakure was lucky to have powerful cats, especially Ichigo Kurosaki to sate his bloodthirst. If not, Zaraki would have become a rouge nin by now.

"Grr...," Ichigo griped. Almost every week he had to fight against this maniac! He wished that Zaraki had obsessed fighting someone else, but no! Always him! Ichigo then leaped to the sky and brought his sword crashing towards Zaraki.

Zaraki block the sword with his own while only using one hand. Good, because if he starts using both, then you're dead. Ichigo's foot still hadn't touch the ground as his blade kept him suspended in mid-air. Zaraki then pushed his blade upwards with enough strength that sends Ichigo to the air again and then unleashed a barrage of sword strikes at Ichigo.

Ichigo deflected them with his own barrage but the strikes have enough force to keep him suspended in mid-air. Zaraki then pull back his sword and gripped it with BOTH hands for a devastating attack. Ichigo eyes' bulged at this and then prepares for his own attack.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo's blade glows blue and he swung down, releasing a white blue energy blast towards Zaraki. However, Zaraki managed to intersect the beam and cut it in half and hits Ichigo's blade.

The result was that Ichigo got thrown away from the forest with such force that Naruto was sure a couple of trees were felled. Zaraki, even though he managed to cut the beam in half, the now two beams hit his torso full force and send him backwards with such force that created two trenches from Zaraki's leg that was trying to keep him planted to the ground.

'Holy shit! These guys are crazy!' Naruto thought. And then, he saw movements. Time for action!

Numerous foliages suddenly sprung to life and swarmed towards Naruto. Naruto saw three camouflaged NekoNins similar to Naruto in a triangle pattern and prepared himself for the fight. The NekoNins threw a hail of shurikens at him and Naruto flashed through a series of handseals.

"Wind Release: Wind Shell!" immediately, a wind sphere started to form and spin around Naruto furiously and intercepted the shurikens. The shurikens, caught in the turbulence, spun around Naruto and then was launched back to their masters, this time with even more speed.

The NekoNins intercepted the now mini spinning chainsaws with their own kunais and deflected it away while Naruto jumped forwards to engage the incoming NekonNins and flashes through his handseals again.

All three NekoNin and Naruto was in mid-air and he was now in front of the middle NekoNin, who had just finished parrying the shurikens and was surprised to see Naruto in front of him with a mini cyclone around his left arm.

"Wind Release: Cyclone Fist!" Naruto punched the NekoNin and the cyclone consumed the NekoNin and sends him spiralling backwards to a tree. The Cyclone Fist, when used in mid-air, propels the user backwards too, albeit with a weaker push back and minus the spinning.

The two remaining NekoNins created a tiny wind cyclone beneath their foot and the cyclone propels them forwards as they slashed towards Naruto.

'Wind Release: Moon Step, eh? Naruto mused. Naruto then collected wind chakra and form it to a mini wind sphere beneath his foot. The wind sphere exploded and propelled him upwards to the sky. The NekoNin's kunai then slashed at empty air and intercepted each other.

'Wind Release: Moon Flash,' Naruto smirked as he looked at the confused NekoNins. Naruto then pulled out shurikens and throw it upwards casually without strength and flashed through a series of handseals again. Once he was done, he faced towards the NekoNins.

"Wind Release: Cyclone Blade!" a tornado started to form around him, and he was right in center. The cyclone then captured the falling shurikens in their turbulence and sped towards the ground. The NekoNins, while still in the air, looked up, and realised what was going to happen. They then kicked each other with Cyclone Dash to get each other away from the incoming cyclone.

However, before they could get away far enough, the cyclone sucked them back in and they were grinded and slashed by the tornado and Naruto's shurikens. Naruto landed on his feet as he touched the ground. The cyclone then dissipated and the two NekoNins fell down with a loud 'thud' and a rain of shurikens.

Naruto smirked as he observed his work and to his fallen preys. He was now the hunter.

"Impressive," a voice said. Naruto spun around, trying to find the voice while pulling out his kunai. "You defeated three of my students, in less than 30 seconds,"

A figure then sped towards with a kunai slash. Naruto intercepted the slash with his own and the two kunais grinded with each other. The resulting clash pushed Naruto backwards a bit, but he held his ground. Naruto now was face to face with his attacker.

It was none other than Soi Fon. She wore a sleeveless haori and has two long fur-hair braids bound with a white cloth each ending with a golden ring. She is Nekogakure's ANBU captain, and as such, a whole different league than what he had fought before. "Well, I was trained by the best," Naruto replied.

"True, let's see how good you are!" Soi Fon said as she pull out another kunai and quickly unleashed a barrage of kunai slashes at him. Naruto countered with his own but in between the barrage he managed to pull out another kunai to increase the attacks.

Still, Soi Fon proved to be much better as some of the attacks managed to get through and cut Naruto in various places. What's more Soi Fon managed to knock one of his kunais away. Naruto quickly pull out another to defend himself.

'Ting!' And another kunai was knocked away from Naruto. Knowing that it was futile, Naruto backed away and flashed his handseals. Soi Fon realised this and throw one of her kunai at him. Naruto jumped while completing his handseal and initiate another technique.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere!" Naruto exhaled tiny wind sphere at Soi Fon, which unsurprisingly, jumped to the air too and caused the wind spheres to hit the ground.

"Tch, too slow!" Soi Fon continued her taijutsu assault, forcing Naruto to counter with his own taijutsu. The two combatants continued their attacks mid-air and each time they were about to fall, they would Moon Flashed higher.

"They said that the higher you go, the harder you fall. Want to try it?" Soi Fon smirked and Naruto replied with a growl. Soi Fon wasn't the type to brag, mind you. It's just that after being trained by the Nekomata himself, one tend to grow a little bit sadistic to their students.

Naruto managed to grabbed to Soi Fon's kunai by its ring and wretched it away. Soi Fon, not wanting to give him the advantage, knocked away the stolen kunai from Naruto's hand by slamming on his arm, hard.

Naruto growled again and Moon Flashed higher and delivered a downward drop kick aimed at Soi Fon's head. But before it could hit, Soi Fon was upside down and blocked it with a kick. Her feet then curled around his own feet to prevent it from moving away. Naruto then used his other leg to kick her again but Soi Fon used her remaining leg to block and restrain it again.

'Dammit!' Naruto cursed. Having his leg restrained, he couldn't use Moon Flash now but so is Soi Fon and they were falling. Naruto flashed his handseals again, hoping that it would at least scare Soi Fon into releasing him. Soi Fon smirked and used her other free hand to instantly grab Naruto's hand and wring it hard away from his other hand, effectively preventing him from completing his handseal.

"Still with both hands?" Soi Fon shook her head in mock disappointment. She then flashed her own handseals with her remaining hand. 'Ah, single hand handseals. Fucking cheat, I tell you,' Naruto mused. He had already lost, he knew it.

"Wind Release: Cyclone Fist!" a small cyclone formed around Soi Fon's arm and she punch it to Naruto's chest. 'Damn it! To be hit by the jutsu I used earlier, she really likes to rub it in my face,' Naruto thought before the Cyclone Fist hit.

Naruto then was sent spiralling away from Soi Fon and into the forest again. The thing about the Cyclone Fist is that you can control the cyclone's trajectory, and thus control where your enemy is going to go. Before Naruto could hit the forest floor, Soi Fon directed the cyclone to the trees and he went through a few thin trees and burst into Nekogakure's river.

Naruto skidded across the river's surface until he was at the other side and impacted something soft, hard.

"GAH!" the 'something' turns out to be Ichigo who, after being knocked away by Zaraki, was sent crashing through the trees, across the river and into a large rock, quite like what Naruto had been through.

"Dammit! I was just about to get up!" Ichigo groaned. It seems that he was knocked out cold for a few seconds.

"Not my fault. Someone put a 'strawberry' on my way," Naruto replied. The strawberry refers to Ichigo's name.

"Ha ha, very funny, now get off! Zaraki's about to come-"but before Ichigo could finish, "That sounds so wrong Ichigo-san,"

"I wasn't finished talking!" Ichigo fumed. Naruto, after years of tutelage under Kenzo, had gained some of his annoying personality.

Sure enough, Zaraki came charging out of the forest. "HAHAHAHAHAH! I haven't been hit like that for ages!"

They both got up and Ichigo slashed downwards and send a wide beam of Getsuga Tenshou. Zaraki also slashed downwards at the point of impact and managed to split the beam, and this time, the beams didn't hit him but instead the trees beside him. "Get out of the way Uzumaki!" Zaraki charged forward again. But before he could reach the river, an earth wall formed in front of Zaraki, which he smashed a hole through, but it served the purpose of stopping his charge.

"What the hell?" Zaraki screamed, angry that his fight was interrupted. Soi Fon appeared on top of the remaining earth wall with crossed hands in front of her chest.

"I think that's enough for the day," she said.

"Like hell! I can still go on!" Zaraki growled in anger.

"I don't care about you. I care about the kittens. They both had been training for the whole day now. And it's getting late. Also, Unohana-san doesn't appreciate the same patient appearing at her division again and again, and almost dying every time," Soi Fon flashed Zaraki a killer glare.

Zaraki 'tched' and walked away. It wasn't that he was scared of Soi Fon, but he at least had the decency not to cross Unohana Retsu. Unohana Retsu is the scariest cat in Nekogakure, and that's saying a lot, considering that Nekogakure has a lot of scary people. Like Zaraki and Mayuri. And Unohana is such a kind cat too! Well, the type of kind-but-scary-as-hell-when-she's-mad type. It's like they said, beware the nice ones when they explode, and Unohana is such a fine example.

Naruto and Ichigo sighed in relief. Everytime Ichigo and Zaraki fought, they always fought to near-death. Zaraki wouldn't have it any other way, until recently, Unohana had enough. Ichigo and Zaraki have a check in record at her division higher than any other cats! And it also clashed with her principle; to keep the same patient from frequenting her division too much. It wouldn't do well to her reputation, but all the cats understood that it wasn't her fault to begin with.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

The next morning, Naruto was in front of Yoruichi, the Nekomata and the Nekokage of Nekogakure. As usual, she was having a rather large breakfast. Naruto wore a black cargo pants with navy blue hoodie jacket that hugged to his body nicely. The jacket has many pockets with zippers all over it and he also wore matching navy blue gloves.

"So, are you ready for the Genin qualification?" Yoruichi asked, without even looking from his bowl.

"Pfft, I'm a Jounin here. I'll pass. I still don't believe gramps would actually agree with me having dual citizenship," Naruto replied.

For the past six years, Naruto had been going back and forth between Konoha and Nekogakure. Konoha to 'socialise' with the residents there, and Nekogakure for training and as Naruto would like to add, living. His training at Nekogakure was kept a secret though, as no one was supposed to know Nekogakure exist.

He didn't have much success with the people of Konoha though. Ever since Naruto found out about his heritage, Sarutobi gave him the choice of either revealing it to the public or just keep quiet until the time is right. Sarutobi had said that if he chooses the first option, his life at Konoha would no doubt change positively.

Naruto scoffed at the thought. That means the reason why the people would accept him would be because of his parent's social status and power and not because of himself. His parents are the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato and the kunoichi from the Village of Whirlpool, Uzumaki Kushina. Both were very powerful and influential people. And being their only heir would no doubt give Naruto a lot of social rank and power, which no doubt, a lot greedy pigs would like to take advantage of.

He is currently the only Namikaze and thus owns the whole of Namikaze property which includes the humongous Namikaze estate and their savings, which is a lot. It turns out, Kushina, his mom had made sure that his father save a lot of the earnings he acquired from missions and added to her own savings, Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki is without a doubt, the youngest richest person in Konoha! Yeah!

Well, worldly material aside, a lot of people would no doubt approach him to take advantage of his status. Like trying to get him marry their daughters and make a lot of babies. The prospect of marriage was enticing to Naruto and he planned to get married someday but not now. He was twelve, for Kami' sake! How would a twelve year old be a good father? And isn't fucking a twelve year old is considered a paedophile? Well, yes in terms of morality but by laws it is different. It turns out, when you became a ninja, no matter how young you are, you're considered an adult. As someone quoted "Old enough to kill, old enough to fuck,"

So the council would no doubt try to get his dick inside their daughters, especially the councils.

Right, like that will ever happen. The people of Konoha easily threw him away like trash when he was nobody and when he's somebody they think that they could just easily take him back?

No, it's not about them 'taking' him back; it's the other way around. He's neither so easily forgiving nor naive this time.

So Naruto chose the second option. To keep quiet until he choose to reveal to the public who he really is. And when the time comes for marriage, he would marry someone else from another village. No way is he going to get tied down to a Konoha girl. Well, Ayame is exempted.

So now even though he is Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki, he would only be known as Naruto Uzumaki. Well, actually his real name would be Naruto Namikaze but he decided to keep his mother's name too since he planned on reviving the Uzumaki clan too someday.

And thus, when he is at Konoha, he would hide the effort of his training. He won't show off to people what he could do, just who he is. It would be bad when the outcast suddenly got strong all of a sudden and could rival a low Jounin. People would suspect something was off and then it would turn out badly. So, when at Konoha, he would train in secret while acting weak and useless and also to 'socialise' with the residents. Even though he is a different and much better person than he was before, the people there didn't even realise it, except for a few people.

Why? Because they refuse to see it. They refuse to understand him and had judged him before they even know him. So fuck 'em.

So when he is at Konoha; he is the weak outcast who nobody wanted. At Nekogakure; he is a respected member of the community.

"It's the payment for keeping you here," Yoruichi answered and Naruto nodded.

The thing is, even though he was from Konoha, Naruto had spent quite a considerable amount of time here that he was officially, a Nekogakure resident. Not to mention that he is also a Nekogakure Ninja of Jounin rank. He obtained the rank only recently though. However, he never did any mission outside of Nekogakure alone, and even so, always with a mask.

However, before this, Sarutobi demanded that Naruto is to be Konoha's ninja. But Yoruichi managed to strike a deal with him for a dual citizenship. This had never happened before. A village doesn't easily let go of their people's citizenship, let alone share it, especially if said people is a ninja. The risks are too high; the ninja could be feeding sensitive info about one village to the other, not to mention their loyalty.

But somehow, Yoruichi managed to pull it off. He would be a ninja of both villages, but his priority will be to Konoha. At times, Nekogakure will call him for missions that they can't handle. Like striking a deal with merchants and the stuff or hunting down the occasional thieves that managed to slip in and get away from Nekogakure. There are certain things that cats can't do after all when it comes to human especially if they wanted to retain their secrecy. But of course, his status as NekoNin is a secret and to the world, he is a...wait, will be a Konoha ninja.

Naruto sighed. After this, he will have to stay at Konoha more than at Nekogakure. "Cheer up kid, not like you can't come back here," Yoruichi said, noticing his dilemma.

"I know," Naruto simply said.

Kenzo suddenly appeared in front of Naruto. "You're ready kid?"

"I was born ready!" Naruto said with enthusiasm. He is going to make his cat teacher slash brother proud.

"No you're not. You were born naked and screaming," Kenzo deadpanned.

Naruto had his mouth open. "It was an expression!"

Seeing his reaction, Kenzo laughed. "Good to see that I can still rile you up. Go then, don't tarnish the reputation of the NekoNin,"

Naruto nodded. A small kitten came to his side and pawed his leg. "Ne ne Naruto-kun, get me some souvenir from Konoha 'k?"

Naruto smiled and kneeled down to scratch the small kitten's ear. "Of course Kohi," Ichigo then appeared beside him and pat him hard on the back. "Any trouble and just summon, got it?" Ichigo said with a grin.

Naruto got back up again and they both clashed their fists together, "Will do,"

Naruto then waved everyone good bye before executing a Body Flicker and disappeared out of sight.

**$#$#$#$#$**

The reason why Nekogakure was unknown to the world was because it was located on top of a large mountain. This mountain isn't a normal mountain however, as the top looked like it has been 'scooped' by a large spoon, leaving a large crater that was filled by Nekogakure. All in all, the mountain, when looked by the side, resembles a volcano and you couldn't even see Nekogakure that way.

That and it was located in a remote misty island in a middle of the ocean between Kumo and Iwa, which was probably why people didn't bother checking the place and it contributed to Nekogakure's secrecy.

Getting from the island to the main continent would take a week by boat. But to a NekoNin, especially Naruto it would take a day at most.

Naruto has just reached the main island and it was already dark. So he decided to camp out in the forest.

After a quick dinner of spiced fish by the river, he then douses the fire with water and took a spot on a large branch on top of a tree.

"This place is nice!" Naruto examined the branch. It was big enough to hold all of his body. The branch will be his bed tonight. He has no problem sleeping on a large branch without falling as it was part of his survival training after all. The high elevation would protect him from ground predators but of course, sleeping in a tree would have its problems. Like bugs. But this is where his suit comes in.

Naruto then unzipped one of his many pockets and pull out a seal tag that was part of the suit and flared his chakra through it. Immediately, his whole attire changed colour from the previous blue and black to forest camo. Satisfied that his attire blended with his environment, Naruto put back the seal tag and zip the pocket shut.

His attire is actually a special custom suit made for outdoor environments by Nekogakure. It was waterproof and can seal the gloves, shoes, pants and the shirt together to create a watertight suit. Of course, the jacket's hoodie isn't normal as it has a gas mask stored inside the suit's sealing scroll. When the gas mask is worn with the hoodie, it can also seal itself and the whole face while still retaining sight and oxygen.

The Survival Suit, as the NekoNins named it, allows one to forgo tents and sleeping bags, and thus, allows Naruto to sleep wherever he wanted to comfortably, even when it rains. Of course, the seal tag that he used earlier was part of the suit. Flare chakra through it and it will change the suit's colour to certain camos. There are many camos available such as Forest, Dessert, Mountain, Night and casual; his previous suit color.

As such, the suit is freakishly expensive. And not many could have it. It took all of his mission earnings plus his own money from the Namikaze estate to acquire it. But it was worth it.

Naruto then sat down and took out a scroll and flared his chakra to it. With a puff of smoke, a book and several scrolls appeared. The scrolls are coloured red, blue, brown and white.

"So, what shall we do tonight? Learn seals or learn elemental affinity?" Naruto scratched his chin. Six years ago, Naruto found out that his elemental affinity was wind. And ever since then he took to himself to learn all there is about wind techniques. Although it took a while, as he did learn other stuff like taijutsu, has finally mastered the wind affinity.

For him to master an element at the age of twelve was an achievement itself. Most Jounin ranked learn two elements at most and most Jounin are like what? 20-30 years old? He was still young and from the look of it, he could learn two elements before reaching 30.

So now he's in a dilemma on what element to focus at.

"Hm...earth sucks. I rather be airborne than grounded. Definitely the last one I'm going to learn. If I ever. Heh," Naruto chuckled darkly.

"So now I'm stuck with water, lightning or fire. Fire and water seems like a good choice as they combo with wind nicely, especially fire. And lightning doesn't combo with wind at all," Naruto mused and sighed.

"But I really like lightning! Just think! Me up in the air and hurling thunderbolts at puny mortals! That is awesome!" Naruto grinned. "But water is definitely much more practical. So fire is out. So...which one?"

"Gah! So hard to choose," Naruto throws his hand up to the air and took a long look at the scroll. "Man, I wished you guys could play Jan Ken Pon against each other. That would make things much easier. Oh well, learn seals then,"

He then prepared to store the scrolls back when he grabbed the blue scroll and had a sense of dread. "Weird, I have a feeling that if I don't learn water techniques, I'm going to regret it somehow..." Naruto narrowed his eyes and his other hand slowly reached out to open the scroll...

"Yeah right! Nice try water! I'm learning lightning!" Naruto said to the scroll, but he pocketed it and stored the others.

He then opened the book and began to read it. It was titled, "Seals and Sealing for Dummies,".

_Of all the arts in the world, sealing is without doubt, the most complex and powerful of all. Now why is it? This is because sealing allows almost infinite actions that other arts can't do._

_Tired of lugging around heavy weights? Why, seal it into a paper and heavy no more! Your neighbours too loud? Slap a silencing seal at his door and noises no more! Can your taijutsu do this? Or ninjutsu? Or genjutsu? Well yes they can! With disastrous results that is._

Naruto chuckled at the author's little humour.

_So now we know a little bit about seals. But how to use it? Seals and sealing is very complex. It requires dedication, discipline, detail and determination. It will also require a keen mathematical mind as it will involve calculations. _

_So, for those who lack the necessary requirements above, please don't bother with the art of sealing. This is because seals are very dangerous if not done properly. You can harm not only you but the people around you, especially the ones that use your seals. Your seal not working is the least of your worries. Some people never got back their stored items, and some even got things that they didn't even store at all! _

Naruto sweat dropped a bit. "At least he's serious. From the title I thought Hachi pranked me or something,"

_For those who wished to continue, then good luck._

_Right, seals and sealing is, essentially the power of words. Words are very powerful for they are able to impart a lot of things. Words give identity. An example would be names. How would people recognize you properly if you don't have a name? Words define purpose and action such as 'Cut' is used to separate physical objects. _

_It can store information. Like this book. It allows communication beyond body language. It can create worlds such as fairytales in books. _

_So do you see how powerful words are? When combined, they can destroy, yet create. When used in seals, it allows the very manipulation of the space-time fabric itself. It can alter the very reality if the seal is perfectly done. And that is what seals do. It manipulates reality using WORDS. How awesome is that! _

Naruto sweat dropped again at the writer's sudden change in mood.

_And as such, it is important to write what you wanted to do with a seal. What you write defines the identity, and more importantly, purpose of the seal and what it does. For example, ninja exploding tags has the word Explode. It EXPLODES. WITHOUT FUEL._

Naruto spend an hour studying the book. The book was very good as it even has an exercise section where readers can make their own beginner seals. The reason why he wanted to learn seals is that his father's legendary skill the Hiraishin, heavily relies on seals to work and as such, one have to be at least a seals master before he could use it.

Naruto found out years ago from his parent's journal that the Uzumaki clan, which is his mother's clan, was experts in the arts of sealing. Their seals were so powerful and efficient that many feared them and sadly, this led to the destruction of their nation. This gave Naruto all the more reason to learn about seals and revive the Uzumaki clan someday. It is sad to let all those potential to go to waste.

He also learnt that his mother, Kushina was the one that taught Minato all he knew about the art of sealing and they both cofounded and created the Hiraishin.

After reading more, he found out that the seal's design cannot be tampered. For example, take the exploding tag and erase a part of the seal, like changing the words a bit. It will either not work, or malfunctions, which is bad. And since seals use chakra, putting a seal on your body is not a good idea unless you know what you were doing.

Naruto was still reading when suddenly he heard a movement from the trees behind him. Quickly storing the book, he unsealed his stored cat mask and wears it along with the hoodie and the mask changed colour from white to forest camo. He then hugged the branch and relaxed himself. Soon he was perfectly camouflaged.

A figure emerged from the woods and stopped by the river. The figure was a she, with long blond hair wrapped with bandages in the middle. She wore a black and purple shirt with black pants and fingerless gloves. She also has her arm wrapped with bandages and wore a red sash around her waist.

She turned around and Naruto could see that she was carrying firewood in her arm. And she also wears a Kumo forehead protector around her head.

Naruto tilted his head. The woman seems familiar.

Suddenly a bird landed on top of Naruto's head. 'Heh, for a bird to land on me, my camouflage skills must be awesome!'

The bird chirped loudly and the woman dropped her load to the ground. Before the firewood could hit the ground however, she throws a kunai towards Naruto. Naruto's eyes bulged as he saw what happened. It was too late! He couldn't dodge it!

And the bird fell of his head with a kunai stuck to its chest. Naruto mentally 'phew!' Damn my skills are awesome!'

He then looked towards the bird. 'I hope you don't have any chicks or any pretty bird waiting at home nest. It would suck having to explain it to them,'

The woman then took the bird and starts to prepare it for her dinner. While she was busy, Naruto began to ransack his brain for information on where he had seen the woman before. And then, he remembered.

'Yugito Nii, one of two of Kumo's hosts! She is the Host of the Two Tailed Beast, the Nibi No Bakaneko!' Naruto remembered her from the Tailed Beasts and Hosts book from Nekogakure. He read the classified book in the hope of recognizing other hosts when he met them! And now a host is in front of him! Oh, what luck!

'Kami! You must really like me!' Naruto mentally praised Kami. He wanted to meet and talk to them about...you know, being a host. It's not like every day you get to meet someone who had the same burden as you. Besides, Nekogakure didnt teach him about how to control Tailed Beasts at all. There are certain things that Nekogakure can't do after all.

'So...what do I do now? Say hello?' Naruto thought. 'Wait, she's a ninja from another village, and last time I check, they weren't on friendly terms with Konoha. And I couldn't say I'm from Nekogakure. And would she even believe I'm a Host? I couldn't transform whenever I wanted to. Should I show her my seal? Not that she could recognize it. Every Beasts is sealed differently after all,'

While Naruto was thinking what to do, Yugito Nii...had finished preparing her dinner and starts to undressed herself. Naruto gawked at this and almost lost his grip.

'Ah shit...should have made the move earlier,' Naruto mentally face palmed. 'If I move now, she will think I'm a pervert,'

Naruto could see that Yugito Nii...was a beauty! Nice curves and breasts about...'is it C or D? Meh, like I would know. This is my first time seeing one Au Natural! All I know is that it is BIG! Alright, it is official, she ruined me for other other girls of my age...' And then Naruto saw a seal on her stomach. The seal looks just like Naruto's except smaller and less complex.

Naruto had his eyes glued to the blonde beauty in front of him. He wasn't a pervert mind you, except that, he never seen a woman naked before and he is at that age after all. Besides, he was raised by cats! He can't help to be curious! Doesn't mean he was clueless about the birds and the bees though.

Yugito then entered the river and start washing herself. The moonlight shone on her and it makes her all the more beautiful and Naruto never took off his eyes from the beauty at all.

After what seemed like an eternity to Naruto, Yugito got out and dried herself with a towel she stored in a scroll. Suddenly, she began to grind her thighs and moaned. "Damn it Nibi!" she cursed slowly.

'Ow what?' Naruto thought. 'She...she couldn't be!'

Yugito then took out a mat and spread it on the floor, exactly beneath the branch that was holding Naruto! She then bites a small cloth and laid down on the mat and starts touching herself, especially her breasts and her womanhood. Naruto has the perfect view of what was happening.

Naruto wasn't sure whether his awesome camouflage skill is a curse or a blessing at the moment.

And then, Naruto could feel a bulge on his pants. 'Shit! Dammit, Junior!' Naruto mentally cursed. 'I know that there's a fine pussy in front of us but as true man, we must not yield!'

'Riiiggghhtt, and 'true man' hides and watches a woman masturbate, is that it?' a second voice inside his head said. 'Fuck that! True man doesn't do that shit! He takes his woman right here and right now!'

'Fuck you Junior!' Naruto mentally screamed.

'Not me idiot! Her! That delicious literal pussy! That pussy wants a tom cat now! And it gotta be me, Master!' Junior replied. And then Junior decides to get really hard. The pain in his pants plus the pain from hugging the branch was starting to get unbearable. So he decided to give Junior a bit of space by raising his butt a little.

Muffled moans can be heard and Naruto saw Yugito arched her back and a few more fingering later, she reached her climax. Her juices flowed out of her and she relaxed back to the mat. "Damn it Nibi! I just bathed!"

Naruto mentally sighed. But then, a bird decided to perch itself on top of Naruto's raised butt. The bird was probably the unfortunate previous bird's pretty birdy. This caught Naruto by surprise and he lost his grip and fell down. The good thing about being a NekoNin is that you always land on your feet.

Naruto managed to correct himself mid-air and landed on his hands and feet and found himself staring at the beauty. Both didn't speak anything at all for a few minutes, but that few minutes seemed like an eternity to them. The worst thing is, Junior is still up and Naruto's feet landed right in between Yugito's leg. Anyone passing by would think of two things. One, is that the two people were about to have sex and two, the guy was a stupid idiot for having his entire clothing still on him while the woman was already stark naked.

"Meow?" Naruto tried his luck at imitating a cat. 'Fucking hell! You were raised by cats, but that doesn't mean you're one!' Naruto cursed at his foolishness.

Yugito's face immediately turn into a deadly frown. Naruto could see her eyes become cat-like blue, and she flared her fangs at Naruto. Yugito was damn pissed! Just because Nibi the cat was acting all horny doesn't mean that any men could take advantage of her! Just because she has a freaking HORNY CAT inside of her doesn't mean she's going to go and do it with any men that came along!

Yugito kicked Naruto's waist hard and send him reeling at the side and she quickly got up. "Fucking DIE!" she flared and immediately a blue flame consumed her.

Naruto gulped as a spectral flaming blue Nekomata that was bigger than Yoruichi appeared and towered over him. "meow?"

The Nibi hissed loudly and a large ball of flame starts to form in her mouth. "FUCK!" Naruto quickly ran into the forest, and dodging flaming balls of death along the way. "Lady! At least wear something!" Naruto shouted behind his back and he got another fireball as a reply.

"You know! I always dreamed of being chased by a hot girl, but not by a literal hot girl!" Naruto shouted again and this time, smaller fireballs almost hit him.

The only viable course of action now was to run away. But Naruto couldn't do that. He wanted to talk to her and clear this whole mess up. But how? 'Looks like I have to beat her, but how do I beat a living flame?'

Naruto spun around and throw his shurikens at her. Before the shurikens could even touch her, they melted. "Damn! She's hot! So I can't touch her directly and Wind Techniques will only make her stronger,"

Naruto dodged another fireball which hit numerous trees before exploding.

"I knew I should have learned some water techniques first!" Naruto ran away again. Luckily, he had his water scroll in his pocket. He then took it out and quickly made a dash out of Nibi's sight and climbed a tree.

The Nibi, lost his sight of him, growled in annoyance. The Nibi then prowled around, sniffing and looking for Naruto. Naruto knew that Yugito won't be out of Nibi soon, so he starts to open the scroll and quickly browse for a suitable technique that he can learn fast.

"AHA! Oh shit!" Naruto quickly dodge out of the way while pocketing the scroll and his cat mask again and landed near Nibi. He took then flashed his handseals, praying that he managed to get it right from viewing the technique in a flash.

"Water Release: Water Encampment Wall!" Naruto then released a torrent of water in front of him that forms a defensive fence in front of him. The technique was naturally defensive but he hoped that the close range usage and the volume of water would be enough to put Nibi out.

Steam started to form from the water and out came Nibi. The water torrent hit it full force but Nibi doesn't look the least affected. Nibi's flaming nose then stopped directly in front of Naruto and Naruto stopped his technique. "Any chance you let me go?" Naruto asked.

"Not with your balls attached!" Yugito growled and Nibi swiped its flaming claws at him. Naruto Moon Flashed upwards past the forest trees and into the sky. He could see the full moon now and he was falling back to towards where Nibi is.

"What to do what to do," Naruto said while rubbing his chin as a large fireball was heading towards him. "Aha!" Naruto then flashed through handseals again and initiates his nintaijutsu.

"Wind Release: Cyclone Armour!" a cyclone started to form around his body, creating a human shaped cyclone. The Cyclone Armour is one of Nekogakure's nintaijutsu and once activated, creates a cyclone armour that deflects projectiles and even attacks. But what's even neat about this technique is that it enables flight.

Naruto swiftly avoided the fireball and sped towards the ground again. More fireballs were sent towards him but he avoided all of them easily. He then reached towards the forest and was hovering above Nibi. "Here kitty kitty kitty! I got a string for you!" Naruto pulled out a bandage from his pocket and starts to dangle it around in front of Nibi.

The Nibi hissed loudly and sent another fireball at him. Naruto avoided and fly towards the river. "Come on kitty! Let's play!" and the Nibi followed suit.

Naruto finally reached the river and stop at the surface. He then flashes through his handseals again and this time, the cyclone around him grows bigger.

"Wind Release: Cyclone Armour Lvl2!" The cyclone then touched the river and starts to collect water from and forms a maelstrom tornado, with him at the center. Nibi stopped at the sight of the now towering whirlpool tornado.

"Now I bring you, Wind Release: Maelstrom Armor!" Naruto said loudly.

Nibi hissed at this and starts to form a black energy sphere in front of its mouth. 'Uh-oh, that looks different and more dangerous than the previous attacks!' Naruto thought and then directed the maelstrom tornado to fly towards Nibi.

Nibi still hadn't finished charging its Tailed Beast Ball and it was quite small. However, seeing the whirlpool tornado was about to impact, Nibi released the ball. Naruto expected this and opened a hole in the maelstrom for it to pass through and the ball almost hit Naruto as it flew by.

Nibi wasn't scared and flared its chakra again to make itself bigger to weather the attack. The whirlpool cyclone than impacted Nibi and Nibi managed to stand its ground for a few seconds before Nibi was consumed by it. Naruto could see the Nibi's chakra shroud getting smaller and smaller until he could see Yugito Nii again and she too was consumed by the vicious torrent of water.

The resulting clash caused a temporary flash flood of the river banks before it receded as quickly as it came. Naruto was on the floor and gasping for breath with a knocked out Yugito beside him.

"That was AWESOME! Water Techniques for the win!" Naruto fist pumped to the air. "But I decided I want to learn lightning first though,"

Naruto then got up and surveyed his surroundings. There was a lot of fish flapping on the ground but most importantly, Yugito's equipment and clothing was washed away and was nowhere in sight.

"Ow what? Seriously?" Naruto glanced toward the unconscious Yugito and he could feel Junior getting up again.

'Master-'

'Shut up Junior! You're not getting any until you're 14 minimum!' Naruto mentally scolded the second voice inside his head.

'Auww,'

'Unless she wants to...' Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly with a lopsided grin.

'Yeah!' he could hear the voice cheering inside his head.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **Finally! The two future lovers meet! But not in a friendly way. Har har har. And who the heck is Junior? Is it who you think it is? And is Naruto growing up to be a pervert? Read and please review people!

Alright, jutsus/techniques! Just so you know, I will use the English names for the techniques and not their Japanese names as they tend to be hard to translate into and write. And sometimes, they can get confusing for me to tell which is which.

**Wind Release: Wind Shell** **–** Similar to the Hyuuga Clan's Rotation technique but with key differences. The user does not spin, and instead of pure chakra, it uses wind chakra. And it doesn't knock away projectiles and attackers but instead capturing and spinning them around like being caught in a tornado and the user can throw them back if they wish it. The user can cast Wind Shell for as long as they like. However, Rotation's offensive power is much stronger but Wind Shell can be combined with fire and water to create Inferno Shell and Maelstrom Shell to make it up for it. Also, one of the effective ways to counter Wind Shell is to throw an exploding tag that will explode and destabilize the shell temporarily if it weren't strong enough.

**Wind Release: Cyclone Fist – **The user creates a cyclone around his fist, which can be used to capture or deflect projectiles; however, the user has to be careful deflecting projectiles as it can hit the body. It can also be used to punch a small cyclone towards the enemy that can be controlled. Can be combined with fire and water to create Inferno and Maelstrom Fist respectively. Has a mini knockback on the user when used mid-air.

**Wind Release: Cyclone Kick – **Similar to Cyclone Fist, but used legs instead.

**Wind Release: Cyclone Blade – **The user creates a large cyclone, which he can be outside or inside the cyclone. The cyclone itself can cut, but the user adds other bladed weapons such as kunais, shurikens, swords and the like to increase the damage.

**Wind Release: Moon Step – **A skill borrowed from One Piece. In One Piece, this skill is used by the World Government's deadliest assassins, the CP9. The user creates a mini cyclone beneath their feet and propels the user to the air. Thus this skill allows 'air jumps', and eliminates the need for the user to touch any surface to resume their jump and even allows the user to change their direction mid-air. This skill also can be used offensively, in which the user Moon Step while kicking an opponent, which send both the user and victim backwards. Also, this skill depends heavily on the legs, thus if the legs are disrupted, this skill cannot be used. High level users can do this skill without handseals and with one leg.

**Wind Release: Moon Flash – **Similar to Moon Step but much faster and can be considered a mid-air Body Flicker. The user creates a compressed wind sphere that explodes and propels the user to the air. This skill is dangerous as it the exploding wind sphere can seriously hurt the user's leg. To counter this, the user must create a protective chakra layer beneath their feet. It also has the same weakness as Moon Step and can be used offensively in the same manner too, albeit with much destructive power. Also, the amount of wind sphere power needs to be precise in indoor environments, lest they crash to the ceiling with concussive force. High level users can use this skill with one leg and without handseals.

**Wind Release: Vacuum Sphere -** Technique used by Danzo when fighting Sasuke in the manga. The user blows out small wind sphere that acts like a bullet.

**Wind Release: Cyclone Armour – **A wind nintaijutsu technique. Essentially it creates a human cyclone. It coats the user in a full body cyclone which can capture projectiles in similar manner to Wind Shell, and can even deflect ninjutsu and taijutsu attacks. A person that tries to punch the armour would find the fist directed someplace else. It's like punching a very slippery man. But it can only block low level projectiles (that isn't coated with chakra) and attacks. With sufficient strength, even a normal punch can get through. Also, as the cyclone is created very near to the user's body, an exploding tag's explosion can reach the user. However, the main feature of this skill is that it allows flight. Can be combined with fire and water to create Inferno and Maelstrom Armour. The user can also release the cyclone around him and spread it around for a final attack.

**Wind Release: Cyclone Armour Lvl2 – **A stronger and bigger version of Cyclone Armour.


	5. Chapter 4: Mizuki 0, Naruto 3?

**Author's Note: **Muahaha! Longest chapter yet! Enjoy! And please review!

* * *

**CHAPTER 4: GENIN EXAM ARC! PART 2: MIZUKI 0, NARUTO...3?**

Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki was trained to do lots of things. Like climbing trees using only his legs, killing people and Hollows alike, fly, and etc. etc. But having an unconscious naked woman in his care isn't one of them.

Naruto sighed, deciding whether he should dress her up in his own spare clothing, which it wouldn't fit, or just wrap her up in a spare blanket until she wakes up. He decided that just wrapping her now is the best option.

So he did that and proceeds to make a tent. Even though he didn't need a tent, he always brought one just in case for certain occasions, like this one, except differently...you know. He then went and prepared dinner using the fishes that got stranded on land while releasing the others that he doesn't need back to the river.

Ten minutes later, he and Yugito were inside the tent. Yugito was still unconscious; she must have hit her head quite hard on a rock back then. He hoped it wasn't permanent, but with a cooperative Tailed Beast inside of her, that was unlikely. Naruto then studied her face.

Beautiful. Suddenly, Naruto remembered something. Yugito Nii has the Nibi no Bakaneko, a cat inside of her. Speaking of cats and women...

_**FLASHBACK**_

It was dark, and Naruto was just about to return to his apartment after borrowing some books from the library. Suddenly, he bumped into someone.

"Nyaaa! Look...what-we have here!" a girl said in a slurred voice. Naruto looked up and saw Rangiku Matsumoto, a blonde female cat that has one of the biggest rack in Nekogakure. She was drunk, as usual and her friend Hinamori Momo was trying to get her home.

"Sorry Naruto-kun, Rangiku had too much to drink-" Momo apologised. "-again..."

Naruto shrugged with an 'eh' and offered to help her. Suddenly, Rangiku glomped him. Naruto, currently seven years old, was only at the height of Matsumoto's chest and as such he was smothered into her breasts.

"Mphm!" Naruto tried to pry himself free from the woman's grip. After a few moments, he did and was on gasping for air.

"Rangiku! What are you doing!" Momo said and Naruto looked up and saw one of the most surprising things in his life. Just now, Rangiku Matsumoto was a walking talking cat the size of a human. Now? She was a cat girl.

Her once previous face that was covered in fur, cat nose and whiskers was gone and was replaced with the **human **face of a young woman with a beauty mark at the bottom right side of her mouth. Her skin that was covered with fur was now gone and replaced with smooth and shiny human skin. In a nutshell, Rangiku looked human, well not completely. She still has cat ears and tails however.

"WHAT THE!" Naruto screamed and ran away back to his apartment. In a year he was here, he only saw cats, well actually more like werecats, but he never saw a human cat before! He finally reached his apartment and found his mentor slash brother cat reading a magazine.

"KenzoKenzoKenzoKenzo-" Kenzo immediately flicked a bug into the boy's mouth and Naruto immediately gagged.

"Where the hell did you get the bug from?" Naruto screamed. Flicking bugs into Naruto's mouth was Kenzo's favourite way of shutting him up, but he usually does it in the forest, where bugs are aplenty. But in here, bugs are non-existent.

"A ninja always prepare," Kenzo said, not taking his eyes from the magazine. Naruto groaned and sat down in front of Kenzo.

"Kenzo! Just now I bumped into Rangiku-san and Momo-san and Rangiku-san was drunk and she glomped me and then she turn into a cat girl!" Naruto said in one breath excitedly. "What happened?"

Kenzo glanced at him for a moment before going back to his magazine. Looks like Naruto has discovered one of Nekogakure's secret...

"Well, the thing is...Nekogakure's residents isn't...100% cats," Kenzo said. "Well, actually, when you think about it, we are of a different species from cats,"

Naruto didn't say anything. If anything he learned from Kenzo is that a good student always listens and only asks when he didn't know something. So far, he was still good. Naruto nodded to motion Kenzo to continue.

"We are...the more advanced species of cats. Just like you human having similarities with monkeys but are not the same," Kenzo flipped a page.

"Nekogakure started when the first Nekomata fell in love and mated with a human. And things started from there. The numbers of Nekos increased and here we are. So in essential, a Neko is part human and part magic cat,"

"Ooohh, so you're like werewolves then? You could change between different forms?" Naruto asked and received a nod from Kenzo.

"Yeah, there are three forms. The first and natural form is this-" Kenzo pointed a thumb to himself. "-the werecat. The second is cat," Kenzo then was consumed by a bright light and he turned into a small house cat. He was still reading the magazine though.

Naruto nodded. He knew what the third form was but he kept quiet. The thing about Kenzo is that, he is an excellent teacher; always demonstrate first how things are supposed to be done before letting his student does it. He wanted to see Kenzo's human cat form.

"And the third is human," Kenzo didn't change and flipped another page. Of course, Kenzo can also be a dick at times.

"Show me the human form then!" Naruto said with a hope that Kenzo would transform.

"Rangiku already showed you and no, I don't want to show you my human form yet," Kenzo nonchalantly said. "I like being mysterious,"

"Eh...if you say so," Naruto sighed. "But then when Rangiku changed, she still has her cat ears and tails,"

Kenzo nodded. "That's because we can't completely change into human, because we aren't human. The best thing we can do in human form is to Shapeshift (Henge) the ears and cat tails to hide it. But, no matter how, our cat features can still be seen through our shadow,"

Naruto nodded. "So your forms are different than a Shapeshift technique then?"

"Yep, Shapeshift requires constant chakra, ours don't," Kenzo replied easily. "The reason why you didn't see all of us in our human form is because that is not what we are. We are cats. Rangiku transformed at that time because she was drunk and tried to appeal to you,"

"Oh..."Naruto said. He understood and he didn't mind about it.

"A lot of Neko interspecies romance between humans went south because they fell in love with our human form and not because of what we are," Kenzo added and glanced at Naruto again.

Naruto nodded again. He read about interspecies romance between shapeshifting animals and humans like the kitsune. The kitsune would transform to a human woman to romance a human male. Most stories, when the truth was revealed, doesn't end well for the kitsune. He understood the need for people to accept who and what they really are, and not because of looks or possessions.

"So does that mean sometimes a Neko romances human outside Nekogakure?"

"Yeah. But sometimes it is needed, not unless you want inbred mutants running around the place. A Neko can seek romance outside Nekogakure but, both Neko and the human must not endanger Nekogakure," Kenzo replied and Naruto nodded.

"So...is that why you're reading Konoha's Kunoichi Monthly?" Naruto grinned and crawled closer.

Kenzo was reading Konoha's Kunoichi Monthly, a magazine that was dedicated to Konoha's kunoichi, which was weird, considering that being a ninja; you wouldn't want too many people to know about you. The magazine was notoriously hard to get outside of Konoha, mainly because it has...'saucy' info about Konoha's kunoichi's and thus, it would be bad if foreign ninjas were to get hold of them.

"A ninja must always know his enemies," Kenzo simply said.

"Enemies? Or preys?" Naruto's grin was earsplitting now.

SMACK!

Ever since that day, Naruto had made his mission to at least see his cat friend's human form. Some has been cooperative...

"Ichigo! Show me your human form!" Naruto asked the blonde cat in front of him. Ichigo shrugged and transformed.

But some has been less sporting...

"No,"

"Please?"

"No,"

"Catty please with catnip on top?"

"No," Kuchiki Byakuya said with finality.

"Bummer,"

"If you managed to make Kenzo and Yoruichi change, then I will," Byakuya said and Naruto slumped down. It was hard making Kenzo do something that he didn't want to, while Yoruichi only laughed at told him to ask again when he was older.

"Party pooper,"

"And don't bother asking Rukia at all," Byakuya glared at the boy.

"Party pooper times ten, that's what you are,"

_**FLASHBACK END**_

Naruto turn back his attention to Yugito, who, it turns out, has woken up and was glaring and him. Naruto glared and readied himself for the incoming storm.

"Hey...before you do anything that you might regret, I want to say something...I'm innocent," Naruto said.

"Fuck you," Yugito simply said, not believing the boy in front of her.

"Eh?" Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly and looked away, embarrassed. "We-well, if you wanted to, I don't mind,"

Yugito's eyes went wide at realising what Naruto had thought she meant. "Not that kind of 'fuck you'!" Yugito punched him out of the tent and stormed towards him, with the blanket still on her of course. "Innocent my ass!"

Naruto skidded the ground a few times before stopping and quickly got up. "Wait wait wait! That was stupid of me, I'm sorry, my fault!"

Yugito stopped her advance towards him and continue glaring at him. Suddenly, she smelled something nice and her stomach growled loudly, which caused her to look away in embarrassment. Naruto slowly walked towards the small campfire beside the tent and picked up the spiced fishes that he had prepared before and offered her one.

"Peace offering?" Naruto handed her the fish. She looked at it sceptically before grabbing it. "Don't worry, it wasn't poisoned. I just spiced it," Naruto then took out a scroll and flashed it to her. "I stored the spices here, kinda boring just eating normal fish, don't you think?"

Yugito glared at him again and took a small bit of the fish. Before she could chew it however, she immediately spat it out and stuck her tongue out and her face went really red.

"Oh shit! That was supposed to be mine! I liked hot and spicy stuff, sorry!" Naruto quickly took out a water canteen and handed it to her. Yugito immediately grab it and chug it like a she was a stranded person on a desert without water. After she had half of the canteen, she glared and hiss loudly at Naruto.

'Man, she really is like a cat. Cat's can't handle spicy stuff, after all,' Naruto sweatdropped and offered her another fish. "Try this; it's sweet and sour,"

Yugito grabbed it again and carefully took a bite and slowly chew it. To her delight, Naruto was right, the fish wasn't spicy and it was delicious! Yugito then proceeded to devour the fish.

Seeing Yugito was contend with his 'offering', Naruto sat down by the fire and Yugito followed. "Okay, I'm not completely innocent. Maybe...60-70% innocent?"

Yugito raised an eyebrow at him. "FYI, I was up in that three loooong before you got here,"

"And what were you doing up there?" Yugito said for the first time since she woke up.

"Camping,"

Yugito raised an eyebrow again.

"Hey, you got your own way of sleeping, I got mine," Naruto handed her another fish as she finished eating. She gladly took it. The boy cooked a mean spiced fish.

"So you decided to lay low instead of greeting me?" Yugito asked.

"Well, we weren't exactly allies. You're from Kumo and I'm from Konoha," Naruto replied.

"You're from Konoha? I didn't see your forehead protector at all," now that she thought about it, the boy in front of her didn't seem to have any forehead protector at all, either he's hiding it or he's a... "Are you a missing nin?" It was plausible. After all, he was strong enough to beat her even in her Tailed Beast mode.

"Do I have to be a ninja to be strong? Can't I be a ninja monk? Or a wandering hermit? Or a mercenary for hire?" Naruto said with a grin.

"So if you're a monk, I figured you're wearing a blonde spiky wig then?" Yugito mockingly asked.

"Nah, I quit being a monk. I can't live without my hair, so I grew it back," Naruto replied with an even bigger grin. "So now I'm a wondering hermit adventuring around the world!"

A tick mark appeared on Yugito's forehead but she calmed herself down quickly. "So if I were to kill you, no one can blame me right? Since you're not exactly related to any villages," Yugito then glared at him and her eyes shone blue with cat-eye slit again.

Naruto's grin turned into a nervous one and he scratched his head. "Okay, you got me. I'm not even a Genin yet,"

Yugito stared at the boy, not believing him. "I swear, if you lie to-"

"Nonononono! I was going to Konoha to take the Genin exam!" Naruto raised his hand defensively in front of him. Yugito's face was of pure shock and to Naruto's surprise, horror.

"Oh Kami! I got beaten by rankless ninja?"

"Technically, I'm not a ninja yet," Naruto added. 'Well, actually I'm a Nekonin, but can't let her know that'

"_Well thank you for the info_," Yugito said with venom and which caused Naruto to chuckle nervously.

'I really need to train harder after this!' Yugito mentally vowed. It was really embarrassing to lose to a teenage rankless ninja. If Kirabi knows about this, he'd made a rap song about it! And then her reputation would be over!

Naruto watched Yugito squirmed from some kind of invisible force and wondered if she's alright. "Soooo...I'm Naruto Uzumaki by the way, and the Host of the Nine Tailed Beast, Kyuubi no Yoko.

Yugito's head turn so fast to face him that it scared the daylights of him. Her face had a mixture of disbelieve and yet at the same time, happy?

"That isn't funny! I swear if you lie to me-"

"It's true! Watch!" Naruto immediately raised his shirt so that the seal is visible. Yugito looked at it and even though she isn't a seal master, she knew what it is. Her face immediately went full on happy.

"Oh thank Kami! At least if they knew I was beaten by a Host rankless ninja, it wouldn't be so embarrassing!" she said out loud. Naruto frowned at this.

"Hey! That's what you were worried about?" he huffed and looked away. Yugito turn and examined the boy in front of her. If it is true that he's a Host, than his strength would make sense, especially if he has early training. Yugito was trained early and by Naruto's age, she already has Chunin level strength. But what strike her as odd is how easy for him to openly admit that he's a Host and how did he knew she was one too? After all, information about Hosts is usually S-rank secret. For all she know, Naruto could be lying and was trying to get closer to her to use her or something.

"Are you really the Host of the Kyuubi? Show me your transformation then," Yugito asked and again Naruto scratched his head.

"I...can't. The Kyuubi and I aren't on very good terms. In fact, I haven't talked to it in years," Naruto replied.

Yugito was even more shocked at this. Normally, it was imperative for the Host to learn and control the Tailed Beast inside them, for if they don't, the Tailed Beast can control them instead. If that happens, the current host would be eliminated and replaced with another that can control it. So why on Earth wasn't he didn't try to control it?

"Oh Kami! This is too much for me...I just finished a mission and decided to camp here for the night before going back home. Then, I got jumped on while I was doing something private-"

"Which was supposed to be done in a private place" Naruto cut in and flushed red at the memory.

Yugito glared at him. "-and then I lost to a rankless ninja, lost all of my possessions, and said ninja has the strongest Tailed Beast in him and he didn't even contact his beast at all!"

"Hey! It shows that I'm strong enough without having to rely on the damn fox!" Naruto replied harshly. He hated it when people pinned the fox for everything that he did or did not do. His actions and the fox's are different!

"This isn't about strength that comes from the Tailed Beasts, but how good your relationship is! One day, when you do meet the fox, there's a chance that he could take you over if you weren't strong enough! You have to meet it and at least reach an understanding! What you did is just like a warden that left his prisoners free to do whatever he wants in the prison, so long as both of you don't disturb each other," Yugito explained. Naruto frowned and glared at her.

"Yeah well, I don't have much help in that matter, alright? The people at Konoha hated me for the fox and tried everything to prevent me to get stronger or even meet the fox!" Naruto replied. "And...the place that I trained couldn't help much either," Naruto replied.

Yugito raised an eyebrow at his statement. "What? They didn't let you? That's ridiculous! That's like giving the most powerful weapon in the world to a brain-dead person!" Naruto gave her an odd look. "You're not brain-dead by the way. What I'm trying to say is, it would do a lot of harm not to just you but to the people around you if you didn't learn how to control it,"

"Yeah I know, Power is useless without Control," Naruto said and Yugito was surprised again. For someone who doesn't have much control of his Tailed Beast, he knew its importance. "That's why I wanted to talk to you. How you do it. And how do you live as a Host. You know like they said, freaks need to stick together," Naruto smiled at her.

"Yeah, freaks. Anyway, I'm Yugito Nii but I assume you already know about that?" Naruto gave her a nervous chuckle. "So let's talk.

Naruto and Yugito talked for the whole night about a lot of things. One of them was about how to confront and control the Tailed Beast but Naruto learned that all Tailed Beasts aren't friendly and was full of negative emotions like hate, malice and others. Yugito said that it was because Tailed Beasts tend to get affected by its Host.

The Tailed Beasts is like a canvas for an art and the Hosts is the artist. If the Host is evil, then the Tailed Beasts tend to be evil too as they were linked together. Overtime, as the Tailed Beasts is exchanged between Hosts that weren't exactly a model person, the Beasts themselves grow evil and they can affect the Hosts to become evil too and in turn, makes the Host and The Beasts eviller.

Naruto learned that for him to confront Kyuubi, he himself was to be purged of his dark emotions over the years, lest the Kyuubi use it to its advantage. Yugito has a less challenging life due to Killer Bee managed to change Kumogakure's perspective of the Hosts. Plus, Kumogakure has a place where your darkness can be brought out to be confronted. Both of those factors allowed Yugito to not only control, but change Nibi as well. Nibi, before this, was just like any other Tailed Beasts, wanting to escape and destroy the people that imprison it. But after striking a deal, Nibi changed positively.

Said deal include shared senses but of course this tend to have its drawback, like having a liking for fish, and now Naruto's spiced fish and among others, including Nibi's horniness. Of course Yugito refused to do it with any random guy just for the sake of release and would sometimes punish Nibi for suggesting so.

Yugito, on the other hand, was horrified after learning what happened to Naruto. To her, the people of Konoha, was stupid. Granted that other villages did the same to their own Hosts, but at least they have the decency to respect them for their abilities to kill them easily. Konoha straight on treating Naruto like trash!

'No wonder he wanted to talk with another Host, he had it rough,' Yugito thought.

The next morning, they were ready to go. Well, Naruto was ready, Yugito on the other hand...

"Dammit! It doesn't fit!" Yugito cursed inside the tent. Naruto offered his clothes but as expected, it doesn't fit her. Make sense, since Naruto was only at Yugito's chest level. Speaking of chest...

"I blame your breasts for that," and a piece of his clothing was thrown at his face.

"You just don't know when to shut up, do you? And last night you said you were innocent,"

"I said partially innocent," Naruto grinned. "Anyway, I couldn't retrieve your belongings last night as I couldn't leave you alone...all naked and unconscious. So, I figured your stuff is already at the ocean, since we're close to one,"

"And? This happened because of you. Take responsibility like a man, would you?"

"Yea...I was about to get to that. Besides, can't let you go back naked. People will ask and then you got a problem," Naruto continued.

"Do you have to remind me?"

"Sooo...I thought that maybe we could go to Kusagakure and get your clothes there, since its closer here," Naruto suggested.

"Alright, but you're the one who's going to get it. I'm not entering any villages naked," Yugito climbed outside the then and Naruto flashed his handseals and slammed a hand to a scroll. The tent then disappeared in a puff of smoke and Naruto stored the scroll away. Naruto then changed the colour of his attire from the forest camo to one of his casual colour scheme. Black pants with hoodie jacket that has black and orange colour.

Naruto then pick up Yugito, bridal style and was about to jump when he was smacked on the chest. "What are you doing?" Yugito asked with a small blush. Nobody ever did this to her before, as they never got the chance. She's not a weak girl mind you. Naruto grinned at the effect she was having.

"Trust me, we'll travel faster this way," and Naruto immediately Moon Flashed away, with a screaming Yugito in his arms.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Kusagakure's Forest**

A red headed girl with glasses was sitting down under a tree reading a book, and surrounded by lots of other books. Most of the books are about medical stuff and chakra control, and some of it was way too advanced for a fourteen years old, but she didn't have any problem with it.

Not that she had a choice really. You see, her life had decided to take a plunge into a deep deep abyss that she wished she could escape from. Few years ago, she lost both her parents and hometown in the Third Ninja World War, which she was the only survivor from her hometown. It turns out; she managed to survive because she has a powerful Sensor ability.

Sensors are ninja's that is able to detect the presence of others using chakra, but her ability is much powerful. She's not only able to see chakra, but able to sense people's emotions based on their chakra alone. Emotion detection using chakra is rarely heard of, and she was able to survive the destruction of her hometown thanks to her ability, called Mind's Eye of The Kagura.

But then, a fishy guy, called Orochimaru found her and was amazed by her ability that he took her with him. She was brought to various places and she soon learned that she was right, Orochimaru was bad. The snake guy experimented with human lives! And the worst thing is, he knew that she had the talent for medical arts too and forced her to learn everything about medicine. She knew why; he was going to use her to help him in his experiments.

So now here she is, in Kusagakure, learning about medicine while Orochimaru was busy somewhere. Orochimaru had established another village, the Village of Sound, Otogakure just for experimentation and she was lucky that she wasn't made an OtoNin, yet. Luckily, Orochimaru deemed her not ready to experiment, yet.

But, at least that's much better than being the one experimented on, right? Besides, she didn't have anywhere or more importantly, someone to go to. Orochimaru is her shade in the blazing hot desert and as far as she knew, there's not another shade in sight.

Fortunately for her, life was about to give her the shade she wanted.

She immediately sensed someone's chakra. It was different than any of the chakra she sensed before. It was bright and warm that somehow, sent a wonderful feeling to her body. It was odd, nobody's chakra has ever done this to her before. Orochimaru's chakra, which was foul and dark almost made her vomit the first time she met him.

The chakra was golden orange in colour and yet, there are two more chakra signatures inside him. Now this confused Karin. People usually has only one chakra source. The one's that have more usually gained it through unnatural means. Plus the chakra signatures were weird. The first one was black and it seemed to contain the second red chakra inside it. However, the red chakra was leaking a little and the leaked chakra turned orange, which Karin deducted, was why the original chakra was golden orange.

Karin was so enthralled by the chakra that she didn't realised that the chakra owner was in front of her.

"Olla!" the chakra owner, a boy two years her junior greeted cheerfully.

"Eeep!" a startled Karin smacked the boy in the face with a book. Living with Orochimaru and his demented experiments required strength after all.

"Ofpf!" Naruto grunted as he was smacked by the heavy book and rolled on the forest floor. "Owh Sensei, you were right! Knowledge really is powerful!"

Karin resisted the urge to smack him again. After all, based on his chakra, he's a good person. She hoped. His other chakra signatures is something to be wary of. "Who are you?"

"I'm just a traveller looking for something, that's all! The name's Naruto Uzumaki!" the boy raised his hand in defence and eyed the book.

Karin saw that through his chakra, the boy was telling the truth. She lowered the book and calmed herself down. "What do you want?"

Karin mentally cursed. Why is she being so helpful to the boy she just met? She wasn't like this. Living with Orochimaru tends to warp you negatively after all.

"Some woman's clothing for my partner. She...uh...lost it in a battle," Naruto said. It was the truth, except it wasn't detailed. "Don't worry; I'll pay you,"

Karin nodded and motioned for him to follow her. Naruto got up and followed suit. Soon, they arrived at Kusagakure's guard gates and Karin used her connection (the guards were in league with Orochimaru) to let him enter the village.

"So...nice place. Like a mini Konoha," Naruto said, trying to start a conversation with the girl beside him.

"It...is," Karin simply replied. "So where are you from anyway?"

"Konoha," Naruto simply said.

"And what brings you here?"

"Well, I was on my way to Konoha to take the Genin Exam in three days time, but got caught in a sticky situation that involves clothing. So yeah," Naruto scratched his head.

"I see..." it was amazing how honest the boy was. They recently met and he openly admit a lot of things to her already.

They then entered a clothing store and Naruto browsed through the collection and Karin eyed the boy. He said that he was taking the Genin test, which would mean that he should have strength that of a Genin. But Karin knew that appearance can be deceiving and a rank doesn't always mean power. And Karin new from his chakra, the boy is, amazingly at a low Jounin rank.

Karin herself wasn't a Kusagakure Genin yet. Orochimaru deliberately told her not to take it yet. That means he wanted to enlist her into Otogakure. Maybe...just maybe...she could go with him? And become Konoha's Genin? That way, she could run away from Orochimaru...she hoped.

But is it worth it? What would happen if Orochimaru found her? No doubt he will be furious and would leash her, maybe literally. But still...she has to try right? And it's not like an opportunity like this come every day.

"Can I...come with you?" Karin said softly and looked at the clothing instead but Naruto heard it and he immediately stopped what he was doing.

"What?"

"I...I'm in a situation. I need help, I need to get out of here!" Karin looked into Naruto's eyes and Naruto could see fear and sadness.

"Wha? But, you're-"

"I'm not even a Genin yet,"

"Seriously? But you're older than me! You should already have-"

"I told you, I'm in a situation. Had it been normal I could have been a Chunin by now. Please, someone bad wants to use me to do something bad too! I...I couldn't!" Karin gripped a blouse harder. It was very weird. She met the boy less than an hour and he became the only guy she could genuinely trust in years. Something about him, that made her do this.

Naruto stared at the girl and realised she was saying the truth. And he understood the need to change, to make a difference to your life, like he did six years ago. And truthfully, he respected people that didn't wait for others to help them but instead, they help themselves first. People that didn't sat around moping why life gave them lemons instead of the apples that they asked for.

Reality isn't a forgiving place to live in. Don't expect to get the best if you don't give it your best first.

Besides, the girl needed his help now and he could make a difference to her life. Not many people have the option to change or make a difference to other people's life. And even less have the good will to use that option for good. Naruto did have a connection in Konoha that he could use.

"Well, if it is your choice, then I supposed I could bring you to Konoha," Naruto scratched his head again.

Karin beamed and in a flash, hugged him tightly. "Thank you! Thank you!"she said through muffled sobs.

'She really wants this, huh? Well, glad I could help,' Naruto thought and hug her back.

Maybe, just maybe, Naruto could become her new shade in the desert.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

"It's complicated..." Naruto simply said while Yugito glared at him.

"So you found a lost puppy and decided to take her home, is that it?" Yugito said.

"Hey! Watch it lady! I'm not a lost puppy! I'm the puppy that decided to leave his bad master for a new and better master!" Karin said loudly and put her hands on her hips. She's not a weak girl, mind you. Orochimaru have the 'survival of the fittest' mentality after all.

"So you admit you're a puppy?" Yugito smirked.

"That's just an expression! An example!" Karin said loudly and they were both staring with each other. Naruto swore he could see a spark of lightning between them.

"Ooookaay, ladies, let's not fight shall we? Yugito-san, you already have your clothes so what are you going to do now?"

The ladies still hadn't broken their eye contact and neither of them blinked at all. Now Naruto totally was an enigma to her. The way things work around him just, didn't make sense at all! How the hell did he just entered a village, which he isn't even from and got a girl to follow him? Was it always like this every time he met a girl? Was she another one of those girls?

"Does this happen often, hm? You met a girl and 'sweep off her feet'?" Yugito air quoted.

"No. You were the first," Naruto simpy said.

"She didn't meant literally", Karin said. It seems that she caught on to what Yugito had meant.

'Smart girl' Yugito thought.

"Well, if I'm such a 'ladies man', you wouldn't try to kill me the first time me met. Besides, I'm sure you find me annoying, right?" Naruto air quoted too and from his voice, he sounded offended. He wasn't dense. A ninja has to look underneath the underneath after all.

Both ladies broke their eye contact and turn to look at Naruto instead. Yugito realised she pushed a little bit too far. Besides, he didn't mean to do what he did to her before. "Sorry," Yugito said softly.

"Never mind, anyway, what are you going to do now?" Naruto asked Yugito again.

"I'll go back of course. My people would be worried if I didn't report back," Yugito replied and Naruto nodded.

"So...I guess we'll meet again someday?" Naruto smiled.

"Of course, I'll put in a good word about you to the Raikage and Killer Bee. If things go well, you could come and train there," Yugito said with a smile too.

"I would love that, so see you again Yugito-san," Naruto offered his hand for a handshake and Yugito took it. After that, Yugito was gone using the Body Flicker.

"So, let's get started shall we?" Naruto asked the remaining girl beside him. Karin nodded and Naruto carried her bridal style again.

Karin was about to protest but Naruto cut her to it. "This will be faster, I assure you," Naruto smirked and Moon Flashed away, again with a screaming girl in his arms.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Konoha's Hokage Office – A day later**

Sarutobi Hiruzen thanked Kami for his wonderful predicament today. Not only did Naruto indeed return to become Konoha's ninja (he thought that after living in Nekogakure he would have refused), he also brought an important person!

The important person was a girl named Karin Kouzuki and had important information! He learnt from her that the newly established Otogakure was led by Orochimaru himself and was doing horrible experiments! Sarutobi had been searching for his ex-student for years! Not even Jiraiya know where and what he's doing. Now, he could rest knowing what he's going to do next.

Naruto himself was surprised by this. He knew a little about Sarutobi's students and from what he heard, Orochimaru is your typical mad evil genius scientist. When Karin said she was in a situation, he thought that she was involved in an underground organization or something. He didn't realise he hit a jackpot.

"Don't worry Karin, to me you're already a Konoha citizen. Now we just need to make it official," Sarutobi smiled at her. She deserved that much and she seemed like a good girl. Besides, it seems like she had her sights on Naruto.

Karin beamed and hugged Naruto tightly. Naruto, it turns out was a freaking godsend to her! She thought that he was just a regular citizen, well, she doubted it but she didn't expect for him to have a direct connection to the Hokage! And said Hokage has been searching for her former master for years now!

She thought that he would flatly refuse her and her status would make Konoha think her as the enemy but it was the other way around! It turns out, she was right; Naruto was indeed, her new shade and a much better one at that.

And she won't let go of her new shade so easily. And maybe, she could turn it into a home?

Sarutobi smirked as he watched a flustered Naruto. He must have never had much contact with girls and this will be good for him.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Hyuuga Estate – Two days later.**

Hyuuga Hinata was very excited and happy! She's finally going to meet Naruto at the academy and she hoped that she got to be in the same team as him!

Hinata carefully check her appearance on the mirror. She has long princess cut waist length black hair and has two long bangs. She wore (okay guys, she wore her Part II clothing. I'm a little bit lazy in the clothing department, so sue me). Satisfied that she looked like how a Hyuuga heiress should be, she set out from her room and into the kitchen.

Her large bento set that she took such a long time to prepare was already packed on the kitchen counter. She then took her seat at the dining table to join her family for breakfast while humming along the way.

Hanabi Hyuuga eyed her elder sister suspiciously. From her reaction, she looked like she was going to meet...a boy. Who could have such an impact on her dear sister? She hoped that he wasn't a jerk because if he is, she's going to use Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms on the bastard and all of the hits will be focused on his balls. She didn't want her kind elder sister to get sad, as she's not only her sister, but to Hanabi, her surrogate mother as well after their mother died.

Hiashi Hyuuga was reading the newspaper and the newspaper was covering all of his face. But the truth is, he was using the Byakugan to see what his daughters were doing. Of course, his daughters knew this but decided to ignore it anyway.

Hiashi studied his eldest daughter. She wasn't alway like this, mind you. In fact, five years ago, she was the complete opposite of what she is today. Almost everyone hated her old self. She was unconfident, frail and weak girl that even Hanabi could defeat her at that time. But now? She really is a true Hyuuga heir and she wasn't a weak girl anymore. In fact, when Hinata regained her status as the heir and Hanabi was to be implanted with the dreaded Caged Bird Seal, Hinata refused against it and even declared that she would beat anyone that dared to touch her little sister.

She even curb-stomped the prodigious Neji to the ground, hard. Ever since then, Hanabi's perspective of her elder sister change dramatically, but it enforced Neji's notion about fate, which, Hinata had unsuccessfully tried many times to convinced him that humman makes their own fate.

No one knew what had caused Hinata to change dramatically. Five years ago, after another gruelling training session that had deemed Hinata unworthy of the heir title, she ran away crying. Few hours later, she came back a different person and demanded Hiashi to give her another chance. He did and was surprised. It turns out; she had it in her after all. It's just her own lack of confidence that was holding her back.

Only Hinata knew what happened.

_**FLASHBACK**_

Hinata was crying in an alley that was far far from her home. She knew it was dangerous but she didn't care. She didn't care about anything now.

Ever since she was kidnapped, plus her mother's death, leaving her without much support and her own family's harsh treatments and expectations from her, she grew to be an introvert and was severely lacking confidence. What's worst, her only source of strength, the loud, confident and never giving up Naruto was nowhere to be seen for the past few months. Some say that he was relocated somewhere far from her own housing area but that didn't stop her from trying to find him.

If only she could see him again. Maybe, she could gain her own confidence?

"Hey, look what we have here boys?" A group of men approached her.

"A girl! Well, isn't it our lucky day?" another man said.

"Bah! Girl? I want a woman man!"

"Pfft! What's the difference? A pussy is still a pussy! Plus, they said a virgin girl's pussy is much tighter. Care to try?"

Hearing what the men had intended to do to her scared the shit out of Hinata. "Pl-plea-please! I'm...I'm a Hyuuga!"

"A Hyuuga?" A man spat. "The elitist bastards Hyuuga? All the more reason for me!"

Hearing this, Hinata broke down and cried hard. The men quickly went towards her, wanting to shut her up before anybody realised what happened but before they could reach her, someone arrived and kick their asses hard.

Hinata stopped her tears and saw that the men were sprawled on the floor, unconscious and a man...no a boy stood tall. Hinata's heart immediately back-flipped as she recognized the boy anywhere!

"You okay?" Naruto said.

Hinata nodded.

"What's wrong with you? Why didn't you fight back?" Naruto said in a stern voice and surprised Hinata. She never heard him speak like that before.

"I-I-I-"

"Don't give me that 'I'm weak and useless' crap because you're not! I know what you can do,"

Hinata's eyes went wide. 'So he has been watching me too?'

"Yes, I've been watching you too. But not as much as you did to me," Naruto replied with a smirk. "I'll be a bad ninja if I didn't realise I was stalked,"

Hinata, realising that she was caught, wanted to faint but Naruto slapped her hard. Hinata jolted back up and held her cheek.

"Listen, do you know what's one of the most dangerous a person can do?" Naruto asked and Hinata shook her head.

"Lack of confidence and ironically, overconfidence. I want to ask you. What would happen if I wasn't able to defeat the men back there? What would you do?"

Hinata dropped her head and looked at the floor. It was much bearable than Naruto's eyes. They already know the answer; she wouldn't do anything. "I'm sorry..."

"Sure, apologizes can mend broken hearts, but what about physical wounds? Can you sorry heal physical wounds that I could get because of your lack of confidence?" Hinata shook her head.

"Can your sorry bring back the dead?"

"I-I'm so-sorry okay!" Hinata screamed. She already had it bad with her own family; she didn't need another one from her crush.

"WHO ARE YOU SORRY TO?" Naruto suddenly screamed and caused Hinata to jump. "Me? Or to yourself?"

"I-I-I-I-" Hinata stuttered.

"Say sorry only after you've given everything you have!" Naruto harshly said.

"Listen, if you keep it up like this, you'll end up hurting everyone and more importantly yourself if you wanted to be a ninja. Do you want that?" Naruto asked with a soft voice.

"N..no..how-how are you strong? I-I don't understand!" Hinata asked and Naruto flashed her a smile.

"Simple, true strength isn't about who you could defeat. But what and who you could protect. I'm strong because I have people I wanted to protect," Naruto replied with a sense of pride.

Hinata immediately turned her head away. She didn't have anyone to protect, mainly because everyone was stronger than her! Naruto realised this and said again.

"Look, being strong doesn't mean you don't need anyone. Being weak doesn't mean you're not needed. The strong needed the weak to protect, and the weak needed the strong to look up to. I wanted to protect Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, even though he is stronger than me,"

Hinata look up again. "But that doesn't mean I have to quit, right? In fact, ask any ninja loyal to Konoha and they will they you that they will protect the Hokage at all cost, even though they are weaker than him,"

"Tell you what," Naruto ducked down and held his right pinky to her. "Let's make a promise that we will protect each other. That way you and I will have someone to protect and make us stronger!"

Hinata blushed hard at this. The way Naruto said it as if...as if he was proposing to her! She wanted to faint but she steeled herself and wrapped her own pinky around Naruto's and nodded. "Promise!"

Naruto flashed her a large grin and patted her head. "Do you know what's your problem is? You kept thinking that you couldn't do it. You thought that other people could do it so much better than you. Well, I don't blame you since you were surrounded by geniuses, but you need to stop thinking like that. Think that if someone can do it. You can too!"

Hinata nodded with a smile. "Stop thinking about what you can't do and start thinking about what you can do! Don't mope around if life gave you lemon instead of the apple that you asked for. In fact!"

Naruto got up and brought Hinata to her feet. "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take back the lemons back! Get mad! You don't want life's damn lemons! What the hell are these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Hinata Hyuuga lemons! Do you know who you are? You're the girl who's gonna burn life's house down! WITH THE LEMONS! You're going to invent a combustible lemon that BURNS LIFE'S HOUSE DOWN!" Naruto screamed on top of his lungs.

Hinata laughed hard at Naruto's weird speech and fall back to the floor laughing and clutching her sides. Naruto smiled seeing his 'motivational speech' worked and offered his hand.

"Come on, a good occasion requires a good food! Let's get something to eat! But seriously, confidence is good, but overconfidence is bad. Don't ever get too confident! You hear me?" Hinata nodded with a smile and took his hand and they both went to their first unofficial date together.

_**FLASHBACK END**_

Ever since then, Hinata changed completely. She no longer needed to stalk Naruto as she could engage him in a conversation without stuttering anymore. She's more confident with herself and every time she was down, she would think "What Would Naruto Do?" and she would feel better.

Of course, Hanabi at first hated her for it, because having lost the chance to be the heir would mean that she would be branded with the seal but ever since Hinata stopped it, Hanabi began to see her in a new light.

Her father also acted much differently towards her. The problem now was Neji. He's still in his "Fate determines everything" crap. If ideals were concrete, Hinata would've punch Neji's ideals to smithereens.

Hinata finished her meal and got up. "I'm going father,"

Hiashi nodded and bid her good luck. Not that she needed any. Hinata grabbed her humongous bento set and set out of her house.

She got a plan today and it involves Naruto.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Konoha Ninja Academy**

The Genin exam is consisted of parts. Part 1: Taijutsu Test. A ninja should alway keep his body healthy because his body will be his final weapon when none of his arsenal works. The students need to at least hold off in a sparring match against the Chunin instructor for a minute or landed a blow to pass. Easy enough.

He was pitted against Mizuki, who, despite his kind exterior, gave Naruto a bad vibe. Naruto could easily land a blow at him but decided to play along and act weak until the very last second; he punched him softly at his chest. Naruto then sighed loudly and claimed that it was a lucky strike.

Part 2: Weapon Proficiency Test. A ninja's second final weapon is his weapons. When you're out of chakra, these are the ones you're going to need. Part 2 itself is consisted of two parts. Shuriken and Kunai tossing.

For the shuriken test, you were given 10 shurikens to hit your targets. There are two targets, one 5 meters away and the other 10 meters. You need to at least get 3 hit on the 5 meter's target area and 2 hit the 10 meters. Missed the targets or the target area more than 5, you fail.

Of course Naruto purposely missed throwing 5 of the shurikens.

Kunai tossing is of the same principle and Naruto applied the same result.

Part 3: Genjutsu Break. The hardest part of the test and most students fail this part. It was needed. A lot of amateur ninjas fell to even the simplest genjutsu in battle and as such, students are required to pass. Although Nekogakure isn't genjutsu oriented, they have average genjutsu skills. Not the super powerful ones like what the Sharingan has or even, as Kenzo said, as powerful of the Kitsune Clan.

Kenzo said there exists a place for Kitsune's, just like Nekogakure was for cats. The Kitsune are masters of the genjutsu arts to the point that their genjutsu almost become reality itself!

Naruto groaned when he realised that he had been inner monologue-ing for too long that he was placed in a genjutsu on the spot by Iruka. He then easily broke through it and the world returned to normal for him. The whole class except Hinata and Karin burst into laughter at his predicament.

"I've been calling you a lot of times already Naruto. But it seems that you were already in your own 'genjutsu'," Iruka smirked.

'Smug-ass' Naruto thought at the scarred Chunin instructor. Iruka was nice. He genuinely taught Naruto compared to other teachers. But unfortunately, he already had a better teacher, so whatever teaching that came from Iruka seemed moot.

Final Part: Ninjutsu. The ability to use ninjutsu is what separates ninja's from the normal people and ninjutsu is a ninja's primary weapon, aside from knowledge that is. This part is also separated into other parts based on a specific ninjutsu. Henge (Transform), Kawarimi (Body Replacement) and Bunshin (Clone).

Naruto performed the tests flawlessly and he was sure that this part of the test he scored higher than the rest. Iruka nodded and scribbled into his notepad. He then compared the rest of the results and after a minute...

"Sorry, you failed," Iruka said sadly.

"Bullshit," Naruto simply replied. He knew he faked his performance to fool the rest and he knew he performed well enough to pass...barely. But he calculated and planned everything! He should pass!

And then he realised it. His plan backfired on him. His barely passing mark was used against him! If an instructor lowered even a small amount of his mark, he would fail!

Naruto growled at this and it surprised Iruka and Mizuki a bit. It was either Iruka or Mizuki, but since Iruka was nice to him, maybe Mizuki? No matter, Sarutobi would know about this. He in fact expected him to succeed.

Naruto excused himself, saying he needed to go to the toilet, while in reality he wanted to send a message to the Hokage. When he was in front of the toilet, Mizuki stopped him.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I really am," Mizuki put a hand on his shoulder.

Naruto then put on his sad face while on the inside he was smirking. "The academy tends to be strict, but who can blame them. Their decision affects the future of children after all. But, after seeing you performance, I could tell you deserved to be a ninja,"

'Yeah right' Mizuki mentally added.

"So I want to help you. Tell you what..."

After a while, Naruto and Mizuki parted ways. Both smirking behind each other's back.

'Idiot! You will never be a ninja! And plus, after this, there will be nothing to hold the village against killing you! And I will be able to run away with the scroll and back to Orochimaru-sama!' Mizuki thought.

'Heh, so you thought you could ensnare me into your trap? Well, let's see about that,' Naruto thought.

Ways of Ninja Number 1: Deception. It worked beautifully.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Sarutobi was busy handling paperwork when suddenly a cat leapt into his desk from the window. It was a small brown cat, Tora. He wore a small pouch on his side and he was hopping at the same spot while munching on a fish.

"Oh good evening Tora, having a good lunch I presume?" Sarutobi asked the cat messenger.

"No time! So many messages! So little time!" The cat somehow managed to talk through the fish. "Here!" Tora handed him a letter and leapt away again.

Sarutobi opened it and read the contents...

_Gramps,_

_Went to the academy for Genin exam. I performed badly but O.K enough that I should pass. But a dick instructor, Mizuki failed me. Now before you chew him out, hear me out. Hey, that rhymes!_

_Anyway..._

_He said that there's another way to pass the test, and that is to steal a forbidden scroll from the Archive. Pfft! He must thought that I'm so dumb to fall for that. Anyway, it seems that he is up to no good. So later at night I'm gonna 'steal' a scroll and meet him at the forest. _

_You know what to do._

_P.S: I hope you don't mind if I 'accidently learn a few thing from the scroll'?_

_Naruto, The Awesome!_

Sarutobi chuckled. It seems Naruto's childish side was still there. Good to know. And about the scroll, he trusted Naruto well enough to handle it.

"ANBU" Sarutobi said in a serious tone. Immediately three ANBU filled the room.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Naruto had just finished sending his message from the toilet and had just exited it when suddenly, both of his hand was grabbed by two girls.

"Naruto-kun! Let's go and have lunch at Ichiraku!" Karin said sweetly. (She's wearing her usual clothing, except that...she wore a PONYTAIL! My god, I saw her wearing one during Shippuden's ED and she looked gorgeous!)

"Naruto-kun! I made this bento for this occasion and I want to share with you!" Hinata said in her own sweet voice. Both girls then stared at each other and sparks erupted between them.

'What the? Since when does this happen?' Naruto thought.

Hinata never openly showed her feelings, instead opted to sending subtle messages all these years. But of course, Naruto was too busy training and Hinata respected that.

But, since Naruto had turned into a babe magnet (she never doubted that he would, Naruto is a fine man after all) and is starting to attract girls, she need to make her move NOW and a little bit aggressively. She thanked Kami that Naruto wasn't interested in the pink haired banshee, Sakura nor was Sakura attracted to him.

But of course, her competition has entered the picture. A red headed girl wearing glasses. And from the look of it, she knew how to get what she wanted.

Karin of course realised that someone is intruding on her new shade, and she couldn't have that.

'Oh boy', Naruto thought with a dread as the sparks was dangerously nearing him.

"Let's eat together then!" Naruto said and gulped.

"But, but I made food enough only for the two of us..."Hinata said in a mock sad voice and looked away. Karin was sceptical at this. The bento that she made was huge! Enough for maybe four people?

"Nonsense! If you will it, anything is possible!" Naruto said in a nervous tone and immediately walked towards the academy roof while dragging the disappointed girls along.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Konoha Ninja Academy – Rooftop.**

Naruto was sweating bullets now as the girls sat in front of him, eyeing each other. If he didn't know any better, he could tell that the girls were telepathically battling out.

Again, sparks appeared between the two of them. He didn't know what to do. Do the girls really like him? Plus does he really like them that way?

It was confusing for the moment and he decided to eat first. "Itadakimasu!" Naruto loudly said and helped himself.

The girls broke away from their staring and helped themselves too while watching Naruto. 'Oh Kami! Now they're watching me! I don't know which I preferred; them staring at each other or them staring at me,'

"How is it Naruto-kun?" Hinata said in a sweetly voice. Naruto gulped while staring at the food. "Delicious!" Naruto replied.

"I'm glad you like it, I _made _it myself," Hinata emphasized on the word 'made'. Karin huffed away, as she wasn't a good cook. 'That will change' she thought bitterly.

'Hinata 1, Karin 0!' Hinata grinned at her triumph.

"You know...eating like this reminds me of the time when me and my master were having dinner," Naruto said and the girls turned their attention to him.

_**FLASHBACK**_

"Itadakimasu!" Naruto happily said and was about to help himself when he realised something. Kenzo was staring at him and while his chopstick poised in the air for something...

Naruto immediately realised something was wrong, Kenzo is up to something. "Itadakimasu?" Naruto said and Kenzo replied with his Itadakimasu, but retaining the same pose.

"I-ta-da-ki-ma-su?" Naruto said slowly while slowly lowering his chopstick on a food. Kenzo replied with in the same manner. Naruto then grabbed a piece and slowly wave the food in circles in front of Kenzo.

"..." Naruto said slowly while bringing the chopstick closer to his mouth...

FLASH!

And the food in his chopstick was gone and Naruto saw that Kenzo was munching.

"GAH! Thought so! Come on Sensei! Do we have to train while eating?" Naruto said.

"Of course, we always need to train. Tell me Naruto, what do you do with useless items?" Kenzo said after swallowing the stolen food.

"Throw them away?"

"CORRECT!" Kenzo pointed his chopstick in to the air. "The brain also acts on the same principle! What you have learned but did not use will be forgotten and thrown away by the brain!"

"But how is training with food relevant?" Naruto asked.

"Not training with food, but with chopsticks!" This time Kenzo posed his chopsticks in a V in front of Naruto.

"Chopstick training is a good way to limber your fingers!" Kenzo then twirled the chopsticks around his fingers. It was impressive; it was like when you twirled your pen when you were bored but much faster and with more skill and using two pens at the same time.

Naruto nodded excitedly. "Master it and you can pleasure a woman using only your fingers!"

Naruto's jaw dropped open and Kenzo then twirled his chopsticks so that the back end was in front and immediately captured a fly that was flying around and flicked it into Naruto's mouth. Naruto gagged and spit out the insect.

"Okay, bugs I can tolerate but flies? No way!" Naruto glared at his teacher. Kenzo then twirled his chopstick back to the normal position and pointed it to Naruto.

"Have you ever heard the saying, 'You have to fight for your food'?" Kenzo death glared at him and Naruto slowly nodded. "Well, that saying applies here!"

Ever since then, every time they ate together, a fight for food occurred using only chopsticks. It took a while but Naruto managed to get better.

The chopstick fight turned out to be like a mini swordfighting; clashing here and there while grabbing food or stealing food from another. It was fun, if you win it. Also, it made you eat fast.

A few weeks later, they were having dinner as usual.

"Itadakimasu," Naruto bowed a little while looking into his Sensei's eyes. Kenzo did the same. It was like a fighting tournament ritual between two martial artists.

Immediately, both had drawn their chopsticks and the intense food fight occurred. After parrying barrages of chopstick attacks, Naruto finally managed to eat a large portion of the food.

"Impressive!" Kenzo said. Naruto immediately stopped eating. "But that was just the basics! Time for the advanced course!"

Naruto mentally groaned. The thing about Kenzo is that, his teaching usually has the basic and advanced course.

"BANKAI!" Kenzo then drew out another pair of chopstick and twirled it around and finally pointed both chopsticks into the air.

"Ow, what? Seriously?" Naruto screamed.

_**FLASHBACK END**_

Naruto was grinning and chuckling like crazy at the memory and both girls looked at each other worriedly.

"Heh, good times...Kenzo sure know how to spice things up," Naruto shook his head while smiling. He then twirled the chopstick around skilfully to demonstrate. Karin and Hinata both blushed at what Naruto told them earlier.

"_Master it and you can pleasure a woman using only your fingers!"_

They both gulped at the thought.

"But of course it turned ridiculous,"Naruto sighed.

_**FLASHBACK **_

"Dumpling!" They were food fighting in a restaurant now over the last piece of dumpling. Both fighters were using dual chopsticks or as Kenzo like to call it, 'Bankai Chopsticks'.

The restaurant owner sighed and flicked a toothpick at the Dumpling. The dumpling was deflected through a window and Naruto dived after it and captured it before it hit the ground.

"Yes!" Naruto raised the dumpling into the air and he swore, he could see a shine just now with an audible 'SHING!'

And of course, you should only gloat your victory after it was totally assured. Sure enough, the dumpling got snatched away by Soi Fon, who appeared a few feet away. "It looks fun what you were doing, mind if I join?"

And so it turned out into a three way fighting for a dumpling outside the restaurant.

Ichigo had just arrived and saw Naruto, Kenzo and Soi Fon engaged in a furious taijutsu...using chopsticks? And then he saw a dumpling bouncing back and forth between the fighters.

"That dumpling looks delicious," Yoruichi appeared beside him and Ichigo groaned. "Go and get it Kitten,"

'Thought so,'

And then it turned into four way fighting. Then Yachiru joined, and another, and another and another...

And then after a while, Ichigo was on top of a pile of 'defeated' cats and in his chopstick, he was proudly holding the dumpling!

And then Yachiru bit his tail. "FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU" Ichigo gripped the dumpling too hard and the dumpling slipped away with such force that it flew into the air...

And a crow captured it mid-flight and devoured it.

"Cacaw cacaw cacaw"...it was as if the crow was taunting and laughing at them.

_**FLASHBACK END**_

Hinata and Karin sweatdropped at this. Some of the story didn't make sense, like this Yachiru biting Ichigo's tail. Who has a tail anyway? Or is it his 'front' tail?

"Good times, good times" Naruto shook his head while smiling again.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Konoha forest – Night time**

Naruto was sitting on top of a tree while swinging his legs, whistling and reading the Forbidden Scroll that he just 'stole' from the archive.

And as planned, Sarutobi made a 'fuss' about it and alerted the ninja's to search for him. But in reality, the ninjas, except Mizuki and Iruka had been briefed about the 'plan'. The plan was to wait low until Mizuki showed his true nature. The reason why Iruka wasn't exempted was because Sarutobi needed to be sure whether he wasn't Mizuki's accomplice.

Naruto learnt that the reason why the scroll he was reading 'Forbidden' was because the jutsu's inside here is either morally unethical, kills you for using it or cost you...a lot for using it. Only some was truly okay and it was forbidden because it was clan specific technique and the like.

"Impure World Resurrection? My Kami! And the Second created this? WTF?" Naruto shook his head and browsed another jutsu. "Shadow Clone? Looks harmless enough..."

Thirty minutes later.

"Naruto!" Iruka appeared beside him.

"Oh hey Iruka-san. What are you doing here?" Naruto said like he didn't do anything wrong.

"What are YOU doing here! Do you know what you did?"

"What did I do?" Naruto asked innocently.

"Naruto!" Mizuki appeared on a tree branch in front of them.

"Sensei! I got you the scroll, so I should pass now, right?"

"What the? What is this about Mizuki?" Iruka asked angrily.

Mizuki smirked. "Naruto, give me the scroll and you'll finally become a Genin!"

"What the hell Mizuki? I didn't hear anything about this!" Iruka's eyes suddenly went wide. "You! You tricked him!"

Mizuki then laughed loudly while clutching his stomach. "Yes, yes I did! I even failed him to make him believe that there's an unorthodox way to become a Genin! How stupid can he be?"

Naruto then sighed and wrapped the scroll back and put it on his back and pull out a candy bar. He unwrap it and proceeded to eat it. This confused the heck out of both Iruka and Mizuki.

"What? You guys want some?" Naruto honestly offered and Iruka sweatdropped while Mizuki laughed again.

"HAHAHA! Do you see that? He didn't even realise how much shit he's in!" Mizuki said.

"No, YOU didn't realise how much shit you're in!" a voice said in a corner. Iruka and Mizuki both turn around to see Kakashi standing on a tree branch near them.

"Kakashi! I caught the thief and his accomplice!" Mizuki said nervously. This is bad, he figured that he could kill Iruka and the kid, and then people would hail him as the hero. The scroll he would then hide it and said that the demon kid had managed to hide it somewhere. Once safe, he would give the scroll to Orochimaru.

But now, it seems that Kakashi had heard everything! Mizuki currently was an average Chunin and Kakashi isn't your run-of-the-mill Jounin either! He's among the best with the rumour that he knew 1000 jutsus! Something that Orochimaru hoped to surpass one day.

Kakashi shook his head in disappointment. "And you said the kid was stupid? You're even more stupid. Telling a Genin to sneak into the Restricted Section and steal a forbidden scroll; something that a Jounin would have trouble to do. And what, you think that when the kid got caught, he won't blab? He didn't need to. You do realise that we have **ways **to make people talk. And some doesn't even need to be painful,"

Mizuki paled at hearing this. "And then you straight on confess that yes, you did tricked the kid, when you could have just denied everything and thus, make the kid the criminal. But of course, you just have to blab and brag like a typical villain,"

"And do you know the kicker is?" Kakashi said in with a grin. "The 'stupid kid' had already told the Hokage about what you asked him to do. And all of the ninjas that was sent out to supposedly hunt the kid, was actually for **you**,"

Mizuki went ghostly white hearing this. It's over now for him! There's no escape! "FUCK!" Mizuki threw one of his giant shuriken at Kakashi but he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"A clone! Huh, scared me!" Mizuki said. And then he realised that the one who does it was Naruto. "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me! Do you want to know why the fuck everyone in the village hates you?"

Iruka's eyes bulged at knowing what his former friend wanted to do. "Mizuki STOP!"

"That's because you're the fucking-"

"-Demon, Kyuubi No Yoko, Host, Container of the Nine Tailed Beast, blab-bla-bla-bla-bla," Naruto said while making a hand gesture of a mouth talking. "Any other news that wasn't grossly outdated ages ago?"

Both Iruka and Mizuki were shocked again. The weak Naruto they all knew was actually a mask.

"You-you knew?" Iruka asked.

"Please, it's like you guys leaving me pieces of puzzle for me to solve. Not that hard. Born on the same day as when the fox attacked. Got whiskers, almost everybody hates me and the name calling. Really, it's like playing a six piece puzzle," Naruto nonchalantly replied.

"You! You...!" Mizuki seethed with anger. None of his plans are working!

"And really, you just made me stronger by making me steal the scroll. Watch, Shadow Clones!" the surrounding area was immediately covered by a large amount of smoke and when the smoke dissipates, numerous Narutos surrounds them.

"You're just a typical villain. And you will fall like one,"

Then Naruto clones didn't rushed towards Mizuki at all but instead engaged him one by one. It turns out, even **a clone** was too much for him and he was soundly defeated.

Iruka was amazed by this. He didn't know that Naruto had been hiding his strength the whole time. Naruto then turned around and was about to head back with one of clones towing Mizuki's body, when Iruka turned and stopped him.

"Naruto...I'm sorry," Iruka said.

"About what?"

"Everything...about what happened to you,"

"Sorry wouldn't undo what has been done and besides, it's not like you're the one who put the fox inside me,"

"Yeah...but...I used to hate you,"

Naruto sighed.

"Frankly, I don't give a shit about people that heard one story about me and judged me before they knew me. I don't care about the people who looked at me one time and said that I'm the demon. Those people don't deserve my time and effort. They don't deserve **me**," Naruto said with a harsh tone.

Iruka bowed his head down in shame. "I –"

"But, they said the best revenge...is to forgive and forget and live happily. That's what I'm trying to do. It will just...take some time," Naruto said again and disappeared with a Moon Flash.

Iruka raised his head and smiled weakly. There's still hope for his redemption.

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Hokage's Office**

Sarutobi sighed and leaned back to his chair after viewing his crystal ball. He was deathly afraid that Naruto would turn detached to the people around him, especially the ones that hurt him before. He was afraid that he would have another Sasuke to handle. But Naruto turns out quite nicely; still willing to forgive and forget while at the same time isn't too naive to do what it needs to be done.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **Phew! My fingers went stone hard from writing this! So long...anway! Plot twists! Hinata and Karin OOC? Nah, to me the Hinata in this story is the regal matured one. The one in canon after Part II but with added bonus of not being so shy around Naruto.

Karin OOC? Yeah...I figured I gave her the personality of when she didn't accept being Orochimaru's pawn yet. Make her hate the snake guy a bit. Hehehe. That and I don't want another Sakura inside Konoha. Besides, Karin is like, the useful version of her. Karin so far had two abilities that others, especially Sakura doesn't have and cannot replicate. And Sakura's super strength? Anyone with proper chakra control could do it; which as a medic, is a must have. And Karin's not only a Sensor but a Medic too! Seriously Sakura, what can you do? Besides, I preferred red to pink for hair colour anyway.

Sigh, I'm gonna bash her in after this. And no, Karin won't become fangirly too much. She would fight for her man, but that doesn't mean she's going to be annoying about it.

Another thing, since Karin didn't have any last name, I figured I give her one. As I was racking my brain for a suitable name...the name Kallen Kouzuki from Code Geass popped intomy head! And it turns out, both girls has a lot in common!

Both names are similar. Kallen or sometimes her name was spelled Karen. Both have red hair. Both are important to their man, until they weren't needed. Both are loyal to their man to a fault and both...later fought against their man. Well, Karin hasn't yet but she will in canon. Sometimes I wondered if Kishimoto-sama modelled Karin after her.

Anyway, Ways of Ninja!

Ways of Ninja 10: Always prepare. That being said, prepare backups.

Ways of Ninja 11: Always know your enemies. Like they say, keep your friends close, your enemy closer.

Ways of Ninja 12: Control. Power is nothing without control.

Ways of Ninja 13: Accuracy. No matter how strong an attack is, if it doesn't hit your target, then it is useless.

Ways of Ninja 14: Balance. Too less of a good thing is bad. Too much of it and it will become a curse.

Ways of Ninja 15: Be unpredictable! Make your enemy second guess you!


	6. Chapter 5: Teammate Blues

**Author's Note: **Right, so for those of you guys who wanted to see Karin with a ponytail, look up Shippuden ED 8. The one with the Bachkoi song. It's brief and it didn't show Karin completely so you have to be quick.

And yes I did used Cave Johnson's speech from Portal 2 by Valve for Naruto's motivational speech to Hinata last chapter. That game is made of win and is full of win. Play it guys. You won't regret it, Kudo's to Valve for daring to take the risk to do something so innovative. Games need that nowadays.

On with the story!

* * *

**CHAPTER 5: GENIN EXAM ARC! PART 3: TEAMMATE BLUES**

**In a forest somewhere between Kumo and Iwa**

Naruto, Ichigo and Rukia were in a forest and were dealing with minor Hollows infestation. All three of them were clad in their ANBU gear and wear cat masks. NekoNin's ANBU mask used only cats albeit with different patterns and colour to differentiate them and with different code names. Naruto, as you guess it was codenamed Leaf Head.

Hollows as it turns out were from an island somewhere in the middle of the ocean that ships just cannot go. Any ship that goes there would be destroyed by some freaking weird anomaly or the Hollows themselves. The only way to get there was to use a small maneuverable boat or water walking but even that was hard as Hollow Island was days away from any nearest island. But some Hollows find a way to get to shore and those that managed to do so are exceptionally strong.

So what actually is a Hollow? Hollows as it turns out are a clan of demons that descended to earth somewhere, somehow. Some say Kami imprisoned them in Hollows Island for their nature, some say Hollow Island is actually the gateway to hell and some say they were from outer space. People preferred the first one though. But not many people would know of Hollows as Hollow Island was exceptionally though to find. Any compass won't work and the waves are freakishly strong. Only Nekogakure, the closest island to it and the Land of Demons, which was connected to Hollow Island somehow, knew about the existence of Hollows.

The Land of Demons managed to seal the connection and thus, prevented Hollows from appearing there but they still kept records about them. So the only way for Hollows to reach the main continent is for the Hollow to be freakishly strong to venture out on water walking or get swept by the ocean and get beached somewhere, which most Hollows doesn't survive or stop at Nekogakure for rest first.

Of course, NekoNins doesn't allow that. That is because Hollows, in order to get stronger and they have the ability to evolve, has to consume flesh. And they tend to cannibalize each other too. One wondered how the heck there is still Hollows if they tend to cannibalize each other. In a word, they are a literal demon.

Anyway, a group of Hollows managed to bypass Nekogakure somehow and reached a forest between Kumo and Iwa. Naruto, along with his NekoNin team was assigned an S-ranked mission to destroy them.

Naruto was on top of a towering large Hollow easily the size of a building; a Gillian Class Menos. It was ironic as their name translated to Lowest Great Hollow when they were so big.

The Hollows all have a distinct feature that separates them from other races. They have some white creepy ceramic mask and holes somewhere around their body. They were also attracted to people with lots of chakra and the Gillian right now was trying to chomp at Naruto.

Big and mean they maybe, but intelligent they were not.

"Storm Leg: Victorious Bird!" Naruto kicked down hard and send a compressed blade of air in shape of a bird slicing the Gillian in half. The Gillian let out one final scream before falling and disappearing in a black puddle before the puddle itself evaporated. Another trait of the Hollows; they died leaving no remains, thus contributing to the world's small info on them.

Naruto then Moon Stepped on the spot to survey the battlefield. Another two more Gillian class left. Ichigo quickly scaled one quickly and reach its mask. He then stabbed the face and a blue beam burst from his giant meat cleaver. "Getsuga Tenshou!"

The beam pierced through the head of the Gillian and it fell down backwards before turning to nothingness. Rukia then managed to get close to a Gillian without it noticing and commenced her attack. "Some no mai, Tsukishiro!"

Immediately, a pillar of ice formed and encased the Gillian. The Gillian didn't move and the ice cracks, shattering it to millions of pieces. Naruto then saw a blur moving through the forest towards Rukia.

"Storm Leg: Rain!" Naruto chanted as he furiously kicked the air towards the moving target, sending dozens of small air blades at it while simultaneously Moon Stepping. The target managed to avoid the majority of it but it didn't stop its charge.

"Naruto!" Ichigo screamed just as a Hollow, the size of large human, appeared on his back.

"You have large chakra! This is going to be delicious!" The Hollow said and hugged Naruto together with his arms, effectively locking him. The Hollow, an Adjucas Class or the Intermediate Class Hollow is one level higher than the Gillian. They're smaller, sure but that makes them faster, much more smarter and powerful and thus a whole different league of danger from Gillians. Consider them a condensed version of Gillians. They also serve as the commander for the Gillians.

The Adjucas, which has a fox mask, bit down on Naruto's neck, gnawing at it while drawing chakra away from him. Ah, another nasty trait of Hollows, chakra sucking. Not enough with eating flesh, they have to suck chakra too. "Fuck!" Naruto cursed. "Time to improvise!"

Since the Adjucas didn't master Moon Step and Naruto hadn't Moon Stepped either, they were both falling to the ground. The Adjucas didn't care, he was though. Merely surviving a fall like this won't release his grip of his meal.

The Adjucas's back was facing the ground and Naruto smirked. "Take this parasite!" Naruto then Moon Flashed downwards and send them speeding to the ground.

The Adjucas was surprised by this. Falling at this height wouldn't harm him much, sure, but at this speed? The Adjucas wasn't quick enough to escape and they both impacted the ground hard. Naruto was lucky that they hit a clearing for it was trees instead, they both will be speared like a kebab.

The impact created a crater and left both combatants dizzy from the shock. The Adjucas released his grip and Naruto struggled to regain control of his body to get away from it. Naruto then realised that Ichigo had appeared in the air above them, his sword poised to stab downwards.

And sure enough, as Naruto got away, Ichigo stabbed the creature in the face and Getsuga'ed him. In a blue explosion, the Adjucas was no more.

"You okay dude?" Ichigo asked while eyeing his neck. He was bleeding like a fountain.

"Yeah, it'll heal. Damn ANBU uniform should have neck guards!" Naruto groaned.

"Heh yeah...tell the higher ups later," Ichigo smirked at his friend.

Rukia then appeared beside them, looking like she was caught in a storm.

"What got you?" Ichigo asked.

"A Bull Adjucas. Charged through a tree and almost hit me. Then he ripped a tree and swung it at me. Luckily, I only got hit by the leaves and not trunks, but I managed to kill him," Rukia said while brushing leaves and branches that got stuck to her.

"Any left?" Naruto asked and both of them shook their heads. "That wraps it up then, phew"

"Let's take a break before we get back," Ichigo suggested and Naruto and Rukia agreed.

After a while, Naruto, Ichigo and Rukia was on top of a large tree branch and was eating fruits native to the forest.

"So, how are you kicking with your new team at Konoha?" Ichigo asked the blonde NekoNin. Naruto was supposed to be at Konoha, doing missions with his new team. But, his dual status as a NekoNin have him pulled for a temporary mission for Nekogakure. This very mission in fact.

Naruto then rolled his eyes at this. "I got stuck with the worst team setup ever!"

"Come on, it couldn't be that bad," Rukia said.

"Oh yeah? Our team had like zero synch. We were like leftovers from the team selection after the people with the best sync was picked and grouped together," Naruto added.

"That bad?" Rukia said again with sympathy.

Naruto then sighed and throw away his apple and plucked another one from the branches above him. "Not really, there's one that I could count on to work with me...the rest..."

"Tell us about it," Rukia said and Ichigo nodded.

"Alright..."

_**FLASHBACK **_

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed loudly and rubbed his temples while smoking his pipe. This reaction of his is normal though when faced with the usual mind boggling problems that come with being the Hokage. It's just the nature of the problem that had him like this.

The problem? The number of Genin graduates this year. 31 Genin graduates in fact.

Now why this 31 number boggled Sarutobi so much? Well, the fact that the number of Genin graduates was supposed to be in multiples of 3. So it was supposed to be 30 or 33 Genin graduates this year. Not 31!

This is because a Genin team is consisted of 3 Genin graduates and one Ninja Sensei. It was tradition ever since Konoha was built from nothing. Well, not exactly nothing but from one man's chakra, but we're getting sidetracked here.

The door to his office opened and revealed Hatake Kakashi in his Jounin uniform. "You called Hokaged-sama?"

Sarutobi nodded and motioned for the Copy Nin to take a seat and Kakashi did. "Right, let's get to business,"

Kakashi nodded. "You know right that it's time to train the Genins?" Sarutobi asked and Kakashi nodded again. "Well, there's an extra,"

Kakashi raised his right eyebrow at this. "It's that girl, Karin right? The one that Naruto brought back?"

Sarutobi sighed and nodded. "I expected to have a lot more Genin grads this year, just enough to form another team with Karin. But..."

"And now we're missing two Genins to form another team..." Kakashi stated. He then sighed and rubbed his temple too. He knew where this is going.

"So now I'm in a fix. I can't hold Karin back because the Chunin instructors had passed her and she's at the age where she's supposed to be a Chunin already," Sarutobi said.

"Well, she can be failed by the real Genin exam," Kakashi said and Sarutobi sighed again.

"True...that depends on the team that she's in. But I feel bad if she did fail. She had a rough life before and was even held back by Orochimaru himself. I'm afraid if she failed...she might break down. And plus, to hold her back until next year and team her with kids 3 years her junior? It will be cruel for her."

Kakashi nodded "Well, a civvie life might be best for her after all she went through. But of course, she could have chosen that option when she came here, but she didn't. So what do we do now?"

"Here are my choices...either we make a two person Genin team, or make a four person Genin team with one Sensei...or with two Senseis," Sarutobi said and took a long drag from his pipe. "This will be temporary of course until next year, where we could add Genins to even them. That is if they hadn't been promoted to Chunin yet,"

Kakashi raised his eyebrow again. All of the options have never been done before, even if it was temporary. "From my standpoint, the third option is the worst. There might be a clash of ideals between the Senseis,"

Sarutobi nodded. "Yeah, and I was about to make Anko the Sensei too,"

Kakashi's face had a look of pure horror. "WTF?" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at him, not used to his subordinate's vulgar words. "Are you trying to turn them into demented sadists?"

"Well...if there's no other option...Besides, I'm sure if it's Anko, the failure rate would be 99%"

Kakashi groaned as he rubbed his temple. He knew what was going to happen. He's going to be the Sensei of the very first ever...five people in a Genin team. "Why me?"

"Second option then?" Sarutobi smiled. "Well, the reason why is because of the Genin's themselves. The thing is...I want to put Sasuke and Naruto together because I hope that Naruto would be able to...divert Sasuke's avenger path,"

Kakashi turn to look at the Hokage and nodded. "That and you're the only one who can teach him how to control the Sharingan. Also, I want to put Sakura and Karin together because I hoped that Sakura can have a rival to push her forward,"

"Yeah...of all the Kunoichi in her class...she's the weakest. In fact, she's the weakest Ninja in her batch," Kakashi added. "But you know this will be a problem later when the time comes for the Chunin exam?"

"Oh?" Sarutobi smirked. "You want to submit them to the Chunin exam this early?"

"Well, I had no doubt in Naruto's ability. Karin and Sasuke just need a little more polishing and Sakura...she needs the polishing of a lifetime but I'm sure her teammates can cover for her," Kakashi stated his opinion and Sarutobi nodded.

"Very well. We've already broken a few traditions. Might as well break a few more, right?" Sarutobi smirked while Kakashi groaned again.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Naruto sat idly in his classroom with the other Genins besides Shikamaru, mimicking his bored face. Shikamaru had his head on rested on his arm on the desk while Naruto propped his head with his left arm. There's nothing much for any of them to do but to wait for their instructor to announce which team they all will be assigned to. So far, Iruka was nowhere to be seen. "Yo Shika," Naruto said in a bored tone.

"...what?" Shikamaru replied in a lazy tone.

"How do you think the team placements going to be?" Naruto asked.

Of all the Genins in their batch, Naruto liked Shikamaru the most. This is because of his amazing and brilliant mind albeit he's lazy. He instantly saw through Naruto's deception. When Naruto came back to Konoha to join its Academy under the pretense of 'learning and training', he kept his weak, dead last image. It worked on most of the students that didn't knew him, except for Hinata, who, after the rescue, knew his strength but respected his wish to keep his strength hidden.

Shikamaru however, wasn't close to him at that time and yet knew that Naruto was holding back. He also knew that; a) Naruto is the Host of the Kyuubi after little investigation; b) Naruto is the Yondaime's son, again after a little investigation of his own. He confronted Naruto about the facts later on and Naruto, having the cat out of the bag, admitted it. Surprisingly enough, Shikamaru wasn't affected by the facts and just shrugged it like it was a normal fact of life.

Ever since then, Naruto and Shikamaru became best friends. Shikamaru was one of the very few people that could see through his mask. But the worst thing is, Naruto didn't know whether Shikamaru's laziness was real or a deception.

"Well, me, Choji and Ino is going to be in the same team to follow the Ino-Shika-Cho tradition," Shikamaru said with the same lazy tone. "Based on the academy's way of grouping the weak with the strong, that will leave two teams with a genius each,"

"Which means that one of my team members is going to be the genius Hinata or Sasuke?" Naruto asked in his bored tone too.

"Nah...I think that Hinata-san is going to be grouped with Shino and Kiba to make a tracking team," Shikamaru added.

"Whaa? Three trackers in a team? Isn't that overkill?" Naruto said with a different tone than normal and had raised his head.

"Nah, each tracker specialised in one form of tracking only. Hinata-san tracks with sight alone, Kiba on scent and Shino...well you get the idea. To rely just on one can be bite you back," Shikamaru replied lazily.

"Oh..." Naruto then resumed his position before. "So Hinata is out then...shit," Naruto said as he realised that he's going to get grouped with Sasuke, the last Uchiha. Shikamaru smirked at his.

"But what bugs me the most is Karin," Shikamaru said. "Not sure what's going to happen to her. Unless Konoha is breaking the tradition of the 3 Genin per team, then things aren't going well for her,"

Naruto then turned to look at Karin, who sat a few rows in front of Naruto. She looked nervous. It was understandable; she still hadn't made any friends yet. She just arrived at Konoha and just took the test. The kids, especially the girls are a little bit wary of her. Especially Hinata. Added the fact that she's the 'extra' of the Genin grads, her team placement is going to be odd. Naruto felt sad for her. He had expected for at least two more members to graduate to make a team with her but...

Karin then turned to look at Naruto and he could see that she really was nervous. Naruto then flashed her a smile and she smiled back, her nervousness disappeared a bit. Iruka then entered and started to explain about being a Genin and stuff like that. He then started to tell the class their team placements.

And sure enough, Shikamaru was right as Iruka stated his team would be the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Team Guy, which was weirdly named, was consisted of Neji Hyuuga, Tenten and Rock Lee. The team was supposed to be Chunin by now but they held back a year.

Shikamaru was right again as the tracker team or Team 8 is consisted of Hinata, Kiba and Shino. Hinata looked disappointed. Shino looked...normal and Kiba high-fived his little pup for whatever reason.

So that leaves...

An emo egoistic arrogant avenger...

A bubblegum haired girl who's a fan of said emo...

And the only one he could count on, a librarian. Well, that was Naruto's first impression of her.

"So team 7 will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno-" Naruto and Sakura groaned.

"-Sasuke Uchiha-" Sakura got up and screamed "YES! TAKE THAT INO!"

"-and Karin Kouzuki with Hatake Kakashi as the Sensei," Iruka finished.

Everyone let out a gasp at hearing this while Karin made a mental celebration. She then turned around to face the Hyuuga Heiress and corrected her glasses with a smirk.

'Hinata-1, Karin-1' Karin thought. Hinata then huffed and looked away.

"I thought that Genin team was four people?" Kiba asked.

"Yeah well, that's Hokage's decision. Any objections you have to bring it to himself," Iruka said with finality.

Shikamaru whistled slowly so that only Naruto could hear it. "Wow, you have it though, good luck man," Shikamaru smirked.

"FML*," Naruto said while cupping his face with both of his hands.

"FYL**" Shikamaru added.

"HEY!"

**$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

The Genins were given an hour break before meeting with their Sensei. Hinata, as usual wanted to have her break with Naruto but Naruto said that it would be better if she were to have it with her team mates. They would need it. Hinata then hesitantly accepted and went away with her team.

Sakura and Sasuke were already gone to parts unknown; Sakura probably trying to woo Sasuke and Sasuke probably running away or...take up Sakura's offer. Naruto shivered at the second thought.

So that leaves him and Karin. And as usual, they were at Ichiraku's.

"So, Naruto-kun is finally a ninja eh?" Ayame, the daughter of Teuchi, the ramen store owner said.

"Yeap. One small step for a giant like me!" Naruto proudly beamed.

"Giant, you?" Teuchi smirked and earned a "Hey!" from Naruto. Naruto was a bit short after all and it became a sensitive issue to him. He's just waiting for his growth spurt.

"Still, a bit weird that they made a five man team. That never happened before," Naruto said to Karin, who was on his left before wolfing down his ramen.

"Well...it is," Karin hesistantly replied. "But it wasn't an absolute rule for a team to be consisted of just four people. Sometimes, you get your teammates changed for missions, so I guess, this is normal?"

Naruto just nod at her statement as his mouth was full with the ramen. "Still! That means I can be with you Naruto-kun!" Karin then hugged his left arm and squealed. Naruto almost choked on his ramen before regaining control of his body.

"Karin-"

"Karin-chan,"

"Uh...okay,"

"Karin...chan. You're not gonna go all Sakura on me are you?" Naruto said while giving her a serious look.

"What! No! I'll have you know that I'm not a fangirl, thank you very much," Karin said.

"O-kay..."

"I'm just a bold girl who knows what she wants. But just because I have you on my sights doesn't mean that you're always on my sights, know what I mean?" Karin then corrected her glasses again.

"I...err...I don't know what to say about that,"

"Oh...it seems that our future Hokage isn't very well versed with women," Karin smirked and inched her face closer to Naruto's.

"Of-of course! I'm twelve for Kami's sake!"

"Aren't you interested? You are at that age after all," Karin licked her lips and earned a nervous gulp from Naruto.

"Well...I...er," Naruto stammered. Six years of training on how to be a kickass ninja and none of his time is devoted on how to handle girls. Karin giggled at his reaction.

"Alright, I'll give you some space to think about it. But, just for you to know, I'll be waiting," Karin said with a mischievous glint in her eye. Naruto chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his head.

Ayame smiled at the two. She was glad for Naruto to finally have a girl to like him after all the hardship he went through. The boy that she regarded as her little brother certainly deserved it.

Teuchi whistled at the sight in front of him. "Wow, already got a girl? But you should stay clear of girls for the moment. You know, them being one of the ninja's vices and all,"

"Ye-yeah! That's right! Ninja vices!" Naruto said and Karin huffed and looked away at Teuchi's statement. Just then, Karin saw a Naruto look-alike.

"Naruto! There's an imposter of you!" Karin said and pointed at the clone, who was reading a magazine. Naruto turned around to look at the clone.

"Oh yeah, that's one of my Shadow Clones," Naruto said and resumed his eating. "I tell you, Shadow Clones are a godsend! It's like having expendable human labour with you 24/7!"

"Shadow Clones?" Karin asked.

"Yeah, they're different from normal Clones in that they can interact with the physical world. And they also have chakra and thus can use jutsu's too," Naruto said. "That factor alone makes them a cheap instant labour,"

Teuchi shook his head. "Damn you ninjas with your magics. What I give for an extra hand," Ayame then smacked his father on his arm, asking whether if her hand wasn't enough.

Naruto chuckled at father-daughter interaction. "They also have the same memories and skill as me. But! The best thing about them is that anything that was learned by the clones will be transferred back to me after they were dispelled,"

Karin's eyes bulged at hearing this. "That means you could use it to cut down the time it takes to learn something!" Naruto nodded. "And perfect for scouting and infiltration too since they don't leave anything behind," Naruto said.

"I've been using them to learn seals and other elements now at home...and also some other things..." Naruto added.

Karin beamed at this. "Teach me then! Oooh, the things that I could learn! And plus no more laundry for me!"

"Do you know that this is a Forbidden Technique?" Naruto asked, finally finishing his last bowl. Karin face fell at hearing this.

"What, why? Was it forbidden because of its potential to make people cheat?" Karin asked and Naruto sweatdropped.

"Probably. Anyway, that wasn't it. It's because every time you create a clone, you chakra is divided evenly between the clones. So if you have 100 chakra and you make a clone, then you and the clone will have 50 chakra each," Naruto explained and Karin nod his head.

"So that means...a person can risk death if he creates too many clones that his chakra capacity cannot support," Karin said while correcting his glasses. "So? I just create one or two. Besides, just having one is enough,"

Naruto smiled at her. 'She's brilliant, just as expected,'

"That and the info the clones learned could overwhelm you if you created too many," Naruto added again.

"Again, I'm sure I can handle one or two information surge. **Teach** **me**," Karin said with finality. Naruto gulped and nod his head. Women, when determined can be scary.

Ayame laughed a little. "Oh, Naruto-kun, if this keeps up, you will be whipped,"

"Still, isn't it scary, when you create someone that has the same memory as you? And that guy can be doing anything using your face and name," Teuchi asked looking a bit disturbed at having a double of yourself.

"Well, yeah, at first. But they are completely loyal and obedient to your orders, so that they won't do anything that you don't want them to do," Naruto explained and all of them nod their heads.

"Well then, we still got time, let's go!" Karin then dragged Naruto away from the giggling father-daughter to learn the Shadow Clone.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"He's late!" Naruto cringed at Sakura's outburst. He never thought that someone could scream that loud without breaking their vocal box. Guess he was wrong. "Relax will you?" Karin said to the pink haired girl.

"Relax? RELAX?" Naruto and this time, Sasuke cringed. "He's late for two hours!" Karin then sighed and read her book again.

It has been two hours since they were supposed to meet their Sensei. All of the teams already left with their Senseis ten minutes after the break. Ever since then, they had stayed in their class waiting and waiting.

Unlike the rest of his team, Naruto knew Kakashi. He's a good guy, albeit a little perverted but there's always a reason why he did things. Like being late for example. He wanted for the team to at least get to know each other and break the ice between them.

Well, so far it didn't work as well as Naruto or Kakashi had hoped. He had no problems socialising with Karin but with Sakura and Sasuke?

Let's recap the last hour...

"So...Sasuke, what do you think of our Sensei?" Naruto asked.

" Well, dobe," Naruto raised an eyebrow at this. 'WTF? What's with the sudden name calling?' Naruto thought. "From his tardiness, and his background history, my opinion of him is very bad,"

"And so is your opinion of me too, I presume?" Naruto asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sasuke said. Naruto got the hint, it was the name calling.

"Whatever teme," Naruto said and looked away. 'Great, another one that judged people by the cover, whatever. At least I tried,'

And since that both boys didn't talk at all. Now the girl...

"So Sakura...what do you think our Sensei?" Naruto asked.

"He's late! If I were dying in a battlefield, he'd arrived at my cold dead body!" Sakura replied.

"Yeah but he knew we weren't in a battlefield, much less dying," Naruto said.

"That shows how much he thinks of us if he couldn't even be on time for something that isn't life threatening," Sakura replied with an angry tone.

'O-kay, maybe Kakashi Sensei isn't such a good topic,' Naruto thought.

And Naruto didn't talk with the both of them again for an hour.

The door to their classroom opened and a head with spiky silver hair popped in. "Yo!" Kakashi said. He then scanned the Genins. Sakura looked angry, Sasuke with his indifferent look, Karin looked as if she was scanning him too and Naruto had a bit angry look. From his look, Kakashi knew they were on to a bad start.

"Of all the Genins, I got tasked to watch over a mixed bunch like you guys. Well, whatever," Kakashi then walked towards the teacher's desk and sat on top of it.

"So, let's start the ice breaking in this 'freezing' room!" Kakashi said while hugging his shivering body from the imaginary cold. "We'll start by introducing ourselves with our names, likes, dislikes, hobbies and dream or dreams if you have a lot,"

"I'll start first. Name, you guys knew that. Hobbies-"

'Reading erotic novels,' Naruto thought.

"-a lot of things. Likes and dislikes, not gonna tell you. Dreams...a lot, when I sleep. Done!" Kakashi said with a clap. All of the Genins sweat dropped at this.

"Pinky start!" Kakashi point at Sakura and she yelped as to being the second to start.

"Ermm...okay, my name is Sakura Haruno. My like is...well actually a person I like is..." Sakura glanced at Sasuke and giggled. Everyone eye rolled at this but Sakura didn't realise it. "My dream is..." she did the same thing again. "My dislike is..." 'Late people!' Inner Sakura said, while Sakura looked away.

Kakashi sighed. If he could play vague, so can his students. 'Fine,' "Red head, next,"

"The name is Karin Kouzuki. Likes are books and strong independent man," she glanced at Naruto and Naruto shivered a bit while Sasuke smirked, thinking that it was probably him. "Dislikes is being weak and being used and people who never learn. Dream is...I'm still searching..."

Kakashi nodded. 'Well at least she's...stable. Thought that after living with Orochimaru, she would turn into another Anko,' "Good, dark boy, you're up!"

Sasuke frowned at him but Kakashi gave him an indifferent look. "Name is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't really like anything but there are tons of things I don't really like,"

'Isn't that the same as saying 'I hate everything?' Naruto, Kakashi and Karin thought.

"I don't like to use the word dream as it sounds weak, so I'll use the word 'ambition'...to kill a certain man," Sasuke said with a serious voice. Sakura swooned at his 'coolness', while Karin looked at him weird.

Naruto and Kakashi sighed. Naruto knew who Sasuke wanted to kill. He knew what happened to his clan.

"Also to revive my clan," Sasuke added and Sakura swooned even more.

"Just hope that you got your priorities right, teme" Naruto said while looking away.

"What was that?" Sasuke said in a cold voice.

"He said that you should at least make little Uchiha babies before you go on your roaring rampage of revenge," Kakashi intervened.

"I'm only twelve, you sick fucks," Sasuke said with a disgusted voice.

"I'm not saying you should do it now, you stupid fuck," Naruto retorted. Both boys glared at each other, sparks in between them.

"Alright, blondie you next," Kakashi said. 'Seriously, my team have like, the most hair colour,' he thought.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Like is ramen, good food, Ichiraku Ramen, good people, my friends and...cats. Dislikes is waiting for the time it takes to cook ramen, bad people. My dream is...to protect what and who's important to me," Naruto stated.

'What happened to your Hokage dream, Naruto?' Kakashi thought. That Naruto had a change of dream might show that he either had matured or something else.

"Right, so icebreaking done, we're going to do a mission tomorrow," Everyone except Naruto perked up at this. Naruto already knew what it was. "What I need to tell you is that...do not eat any breakfast tomorrow, you'll throw up and that will be a waste. Meet me at Training Ground 7 at 9 am," Kakashi said. He then immediately Body Flickered out of sight, leaving no chance for his students to ask anything more.

Sasuke left without a word while Sakura looked nervous and left after saying a goodbye to Naruto and Karin. Karin and Naruto then got up to leave.

"Naruto-kun, what do you think the mission is going to be?" Karin asked.

"Not mission, a test," Naruto said simply and immediately left before Karin could ask anything further.

The truth is, the test was for Sasuke, Karin and Sakura. Kakashi and Naruto were actually collaborating to make the team work together.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"Hey guys!" Kakashi beamed at his Genins.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Sakura and Karin screamed. Kakashi was two hours late...again!

"Aww, look at my cute Genin girls, having something to agree on," Kakashi said and brought his hand together and pulled a face that girls do when they found something cute. Sakura, Karin and Naruto gagged at this.

"Anyway, do you guys know what the mission is?" Kakashi said while taking out a small clock and place it on a tree stump. Everyone except Naruto shook their head.

"The mission is more like a test, to determine if you guys have what it takes to be a Genin," Kakashi said while sitting beside the clock.

"Didn't we pass the test to become a Genin?" Sasuke asked. He didn't like this. In fact, he didn't like being fooled around (eheheh).

"Well, that was just the preliminary test. To see if you guys have what it takes, physically and mentally to be a Genin. All in all, all of those tests are theoretical," Kakashi said while propping his head on his hand. "This is the real practical test. The test to see if you could apply what you have learned to the real field,"

Kakashi then took out a three bells and dangle it in front of them. "Each of you has an hour to take a bell from me,"

Everyone except Naruto again eyed the bell. There's only three! This means someone has to fail...

"Those with the bell, succeeds and those without it, fails. Those who failed will be tied to a tree stump and will not have the lunch that I prepared. Oh and you will be sent back to the academy to retake the academy training for a year," Kakashi said with an eye smile that creep the girls.

"What?" Sasuke fumed. He's not going to go back! He wanted to go forward!

"Yes, as you can see, we have an extra," Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura turned to look at Karin, who looked away.

"So? Why should we do this? Just drop Karin and be done with it!" Sakura said.

"What? It's that easy isn't it?" Karin glared at Sakura and she glared back.

Kakashi then sighed and flared his killing intent which caught the girl's attention.

"You guys better come at me with all you have and the intent to kill. If not, well, prepare to meet your juniors then," Kakashi said nonchalantly. "Start!"

Karin, Sasuke and Sakura all disappeared and hid themselves. Naruto on the other hand...

Kakashi tilted his head at him. "So Kakashi Sensei, care for a warm up?" Naruto said while cracking his knuckles. Kakashi smiled and got up.

"Let's see how well the cats trained you, Naruto..." Naruto then leaped at his new Sensei.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Sasuke hid himself among the tree leaves and start to formulate his plan of getting a bell. But first thing first, he needed to assess his foe's ability. He really didn't like his Sensei very much. That's because of his tardiness and also, his transplanted Sharingan, which was supposed to be Uchiha exclusive.

Sasuke hated that. Hated the fact that Kakashi basked in the glory of his clan while not actually entitled to it. Kakashi was famously known as the Copy Nin, and that title was achieved using the Sharingan!

However, Sasuke also hated himself. The last Uchiha and yet he still hasn't unlocked his own true Sharingan. Something that the 'copy' could do. He need to change that.

As he started to plan his attack, he was surprised by the scene in front of him. The dead last, weak, and baka Naruto was fighting Kakashi head on!

Naruto was trading furious blows with Kakashi, none of which hit each other. Kakashi sent a fist at Naruto's face but Naruto caught it by the wrist before it hits. Kakashi then aimed a punch at his gut but Naruto grab it away and delivered a knee kick to Kakashi's chest.

Kakashi merely move his upper body to the back and avoided the knee but Naruto then kick Kakashi's chest using the same knee and pushed him away. Both of them slid a bit backwards before stopping. Kakashi rubbed his chest tenderly. "That hurt...a little bit," Kakashi said.

"Wasn't done yet! Take this, Storm Leg: Victorious Bird!" Naruto then did a powerful spin kick and send out a powerful vertical sharp and fast compressed air blade in shape of a bird towards Kakashi. Kakashi avoided it at the last second and he could hear the air being cut near him. The air blade then hit the tree stump that placed the clock and cut the stump in half. The clock luckily wasn't placed in the center and was spared from being cleaved. The air blade doesn't stop there though, as it continued to cut through more trees in its path before it dissipated.

Kakashi turned to look at the destruction caused by the jutsu and whistled at it. He turned to look around to find Naruto was missing. Suddenly, a hail of leaves stormed at him and he evaded it. Kakashi saw that the leaves had embedded itself into the ground.

'Two can play the game!' Kakashi thought and picked a stone nearby using his leg and chakra enhanced kicks it towards the forest and was countered by more hail of leaves. Kakashi evaded again and kicked more stones and pebbles along the way. Suddenly, when he was kicking another pebble, Naruto appeared behind him from a bush with a Cyclone Fist in his right hand.

Naruto's eyes bulged as his fist hit Kakashi but he was replaced by a log instead, and the log was sent spiralling away. 'Damn it, Replacement!'

Kakashi then leaped from the forest in front of Naruto and kicked the log back to him. Naruto then saw, in slow motion, as the log was spinning back to him with an exploding tag stuck to it. Naruto then punched the log back to Kakashi.

The log was about to reach Kakashi when Naruto Replaced himself with it and aimed a punch at Kakashi but Kakashi pulled another Replacement with the same log and Naruto found himself punching the log. The log went flying away before exploding into a fireball and Naruto landed on the ground. Kakashi was a good distance behind him, his back facing Naruto.

"This is fun," Naruto said.

"It is," Kakashi said and both combatants spun around and threw a kunai with an exploding tag. The kunai clashed with each other mid flight and exploded. After the fireball was gone, so was Naruto. Kakashi then shrugged and pulled out his Icha Icha Paradise and started to read it.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

"What the fuck?" Sasuke said in a whisper, disbelieving at the scene that played before him. The skill that was displayed by Kakashi, and he didn't want to admit it...Naruto, was unbelieveable! Especially the jutsu that Naruto used that cleaved the trees just now. Sasuke never saw that jutsu before!

Suddenly, he heard screams. Then, Kakashi threw a flash bang at Sasuke without looking away from the book. The flash bomb then exploded and Sasuke, who was distracted by the scream before, faced the full flash of the bright light from the bomb. Instantly the effect of the bomb can be felt. He was dizzy, his ears were ringing and his eyes had blurry after images.

A hand then grabbed his leg and forcefully pulled him down from the tree. Sasuke was falling but before he could reach the ground, he was kicked squarely in the chest and hit a tree. His head was knocked at the trunk and he immediately passed out.

"That will teach you some humility..." Kakashi said and disappeared.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

**Earlier before**

Sakura was watching from a tree in amazement at the fight scene and was gaping like a fish. She never thought that Naruto the dead last could do something like that! That and her teacher is no pushover either. Tardy he maybe, but still a capable killer. She might want to lower her voice the next time she screamed at him for being late.

"What's happening?" a voice said beside her and she turned to look at the voice and saw Kakashi. They both stared at each other for a moment before Sakura turned to look back at the Kakashi that has just finished fighting Naruto.

The Kakashi then turned his head from the book, ever so slowly to her eyes, and eye smiled. "Oh, you're watching me watching you. How...awkwardly entertaining," Sakura then started to sweat bullets. She wasn't physically as strong as Naruto and now that her Sensei has caught up to her...

"Well then..." Kakashi then pushed Sakura off the tree and she fell down screaming. She then landed on something soft with a sickening CRACK! She turned to look down on her cushion and realised that she had just landed on Sasuke's back.

"Sa...kura...my spine! How could you!" Sasuke breathed before passed out and Sakura screamed again before she too, fainted.

"Okay...that was a little too harsh, but meh," the Kakashi that was on top of the tree shrugged and disappeared away.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Karin had just finished watching the fight between Naruto and Kakashi and let out a mute 'wow'. He knew Naruto was strong, but she didn't know HOW strong. She then smirked. 'Looks like my choice is right after all,'

She then used her Mind's Eye and found out that another Kakashi was approaching her. Well, that can't be right, unless...

She then jumped down from her hiding spot and ran away but the Kakashi cloned appeared in front of her. Karin then bit her lip and realising that she didn't have any other option, she casted the Shadow Clone technique. Another Karin appeared in a smoke beside her and both Karin took out their kunais.

"Oh? Shadow Clones? I take it that Naruto taught you that forbidden technique? A technique, that as its name suggests, is forbidden in every way? From its learning, teaching and execution?" Kakashi death glared with killing intent flaring at her. Karin gulped but held strong. "I-I learned from watching him! He didn't teach me!"

From the inside, Kakashi was smirking. The girl was loyal, that much is true and held her ground against him.

Both Karin charged at him but Kakashi immediately knock them out in a flash. Kakashi then smiled at her and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

"So...how was has it been Naruto?" Kakashi asked while reading his book. Naruto was sitting in front of him with his teammates lying on the forest floor, unconscious.

"Fine. Did some kick ass missions along the way," Naruto leaned his body at the tree behind him.

"S mission?"

"7 of them," Naruto smirked and Kakashi whistled again.

"Still can't believe you're a ninja of two villages,"

"Still can't believe that we're a 5 man Genin team," Naruto added.

"Well, we have the old man to blame for that," Kakashi eye smiled at him.

"I swear, that old coot is getting senile these days,"

"And you can blame the paperwork for that," Kakashi replied and earned a snort from Naruto.

Groans then can be heard from the fallen Genins. "Well, time to go. Oh and Naruto, nice catch," Kakashi said and glanced at Karin. Naruto blushed and threw a stone at him, which hit a tree as Kakashi disappeared.

"Fuckin' pervert," Naruto mumbled. His teammates then woke up one by one and were startled to see Naruto.

"Sup, found you guys floored...literally," Naruto said. Sasuke groaned at hearing this. He was so easily taken out and Naruto had been the one dragging his ass back there! This wasn't supposed to happen! Sakura then saw Sasuke was fine and instantly glomped him with a squeal. Everyone 'shushed' her and she immediately let go of Sasuke with a red face.

"So, obviously none of us is a match for him...**alone**," Naruto emphasized at his last word. "So how are we going to do it?"

"We? You do realise that there aren't enough bells for all of us?" Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah! So what's the point? Even if we do team up and succeed in taking the bell, one of us still has to go..." Sakura said softly. She realised that if they team up and succeed, one of them has to be the sacrificial lamb. She didn't want to be the one. She just got the chance to be with Sasuke!

Karin looked dejected at this. She knew that she has to be the sacrifice. After all, she just got into Konoha and to say that she deserved the privileges that the real residents are entitled to is too much. There's always next time. Or she could just become a civilian instead. That would be so much simpler.

"You guys, take the bell..." Karin said softly. Sakura and Sasuke didn't say anything. They were grateful that someone was willing to get burned for them.

Naruto sighed. It was ironic, that an outsider was even nobler than the two residents in front of him. Well at least there's some semblance of a team right now.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#$**

Kakashi was still reading his book when Naruto jumped at him to deliver a drop kick. Kakashi step backwards and stored his book. It's time to get serious now.

Naruto, his kick failed to hit, landed down and quickly charge at him and they began trading blows again. A hail of shuriken then stormed towards Kakashi from his side but he jumped backwards again to avoid it.

Naruto then flashed his handseals and performed his technique. "Wind Technique: Great Breakthrough!"

A gale of wind blew from Naruto and picked up the shurikens that was flying in front of Naruto and went flying towards Kakashi again. Kakashi wanted to evade to either of his side but another hail of kunai, this time from both sides came flying towards him.

Kakashi smirked. 'A good teamwork if I must say so myself,' Kakashi, seeing no other choice, jumped upwards before any of the attacks could hit him.

As soon as he was in the air, a large fireball greeted him. The thing about being airborne is that, unless you know specific jutsus that allow you to jump on air, evading mid-air was almost impossible.

And it just so happened that Kakashi didn't know any mid-air evasion techniques. So he then countered the fireball with another fireball and the techniques cancelled each other out. Just as Kakashi landed a kunai was set on his throat by Naruto. Kakashi, not used to having his throat threatened, responded and grappled with Naruto.

Kakashi then managed to turn the table around. Naruto's back now was facing Kakashi and his right hand was held behind his back while his left hand was trying to prevent Kakashi from stabbing his throat with Naruto's own kunai.

"Kakashi Sensei...this is going a little out of hand, don't you think?" Naruto said while both of them are struggling to overpower each other.

"Bullshit, this is what you're aiming for right?" Kakashi said calmly. And then Kakashi could hear the sound of bells and a ringing sound. He turned around and saw that Sasuke was holding the bells. Karin and Sakura also came out from their hiding spot. "Oh, finally, at the last second too,"

Kakashi then threw away the kunai and pinned Naruto towards the ground hard. Naruto let out an 'opmh' and Kakashi, amazingly took out a rope from nowhere and began to tie him up.

"Sensei! Not so tight!" Kakashi then got up and shouldered the now helpless and tied Naruto.

"Congrats! You three got the bells while Naruto here," Kakashi tilted his head at Naruto. "Doesn't get it and must face the punishment,"

"What the! No wait! That wasn't supposed to happen! This wasn't what we planned!" Karin said.

"And your plan were...?" Kakashi said.

Karin looked away before hesitantly replied. "I was supposed to not get a bell,"

"Newsflash, no matter how hard you plan, there's always a possibility of it going south. And this is an example of it. He got caught so he won't get the bell," Kakashi said and proceeded to tie him up to the tree stump.

"So, as promised, you three get to lunch and will become true Genins while Naruto here will sit and watch you guys eat in front of him and will return to the academy for a repeat," Kakashi said and clapped his hand.

"Wha-what? That's too cruel!" Sakura said.

"It is. Punishment needs to be harsh to be effective. Now, you three are forbidden to share your food with him, or..you share the same fate," Kakashi death glared at them and they nodded. "So eat up! I need to fill out your test forms!" with that Kakashi disappeared.

The three of them didn't eat much as they were busy feeling down. Sasuke was down because he knew how weak he was. If it was against Kakashi, he understood. But he knew that should he and Naruto went toe to toe, he will be floored. They were at the same age and yet, the gap was too big. How the heck did he get so strong?

To say that Sasuke didn't do anything for the past five years was an insult to him. He trained and trained day and night, 24/7. And yet...Naruto, who, was the dead last at the academy was even stronger than him! It was...unacceptable.

Sakura was down because she didn't helped much in the fight aside from throwing kunais at Kakashi sensei. And the fact that she was selfish and didn't have the guts to sacrifice for the team.

Karin was down because things had just taken a turn for the worst. They planned for her to be sacrificed but instead, it was Naruto. And now, Naruto, who had done so much for her is going to repeat a year at the academy! Naruto didn't deserve this. He was strong and has the potential to go far. And now because of her, he's held back.

"Well, this could have been worst," Naruto said calmly.

A single tear then dropped down to Karin's uneaten lunch and few more followed. "I'm sorry! This shouldn't happen if I wasn't here! I was just the extra!" Karin then cried fully, letting her tears streamed down on her cheeks.

'Oh man, my NekoNin team test was never this emotional!' Naruto thought. A woman's final and greatest weapon against a guy is always her tears. "He-hey Karin-chan! No need to be sad! It's just a year!"

"No! A year is too long! I don't deserve this! If only I had just stayed at Kusagakure..." Karin sobbed.

'Oh boy, if none of them is going to offer their lunch to me, this whole thing is going to fall apart!' Naruto thought.

"Karin-chan, don't say that! You're welcomed here!" Sakura said and hugged her. She then cried too and realised that her selfishness had played a part in Karin's pain. Karin then broke herself free from her and muttered a thank you before steeling herself. Karin then offered Naruto her lunch.

"Karin!" Sakura gasped.

"I don't care! This lunch was supposed to be Naruto's!" Karin then took her chopstick and picked bit of the food to feed Naruto.

Sasuke watched as Karin fed Naruto, both were blushing a bit. Now the team's going to have only two Genins...two?

Suddenly Sasuke realised something, something that was so fucking trivial that he cursed himself because of his stupidity and...he didn't want to admit it, ego! Even if Karin wasn't in the team and they have the usual three Genin in a team and was tested the same, there's no way Kakashi is going to fail one of them and make it a two Genin per team!

Two Genins in one team is never heard of before! Granted that four Genin was also never heard of but regardless the question remained that, what are they going to do with two Genins? Are they going have to wait until next year where a Genin will join them and the test repeats?

Or are they going to do missions with only two Genins? No! Genin missions were never authorised until they have the full team of three Genins! Even if one of them was absent, they couldn't take any missions especially the higher ranked ones.

So it wasn't that one of them is going to fail...no. It was whether all of them going to fail...or make it.

Sasuke then also offered his lunch at Naruto, which surprises both girls but not Naruto. 'For a genius, it took you time to figure it out,' Naruto mused.

Sakura then followed suit, since it would pointless if her object of desire were to fail and she didn't. Might as well follow all of them to hell together.

Kakashi then appeared in front of them using the Body Flicker and death glared at them. Sakura 'eeped' by the sudden appearance while Karin looked determined. Sasuke had a somewhat disappointed look.

"What did I ordered you guys to do? And you disobeyed it!" Kakashi said in a stern voice.

"And all of you guys pass!" Kakashi suddenly said in a cheery tone and clapped his hand together. Both girls 'eehh?' at this and Kakashi eye smiled at them.

"I don't get it?" Sakura asked.

"The test is actually compromised of different parts," Kakashi began. "The first part is to see or not whether you can work together to complete the mission regardless of knowing that one of you wouldn't make it out. Someday, a mission like this must be completed for the good of many so pray to Kami that you guys wouldn't get this kind of mission, ever," Kakashi said with a sad tone.

"A lot failed because they didn't fight me but amongst each other for the rights for the bell. And some who managed to work as a team fell apart to decide who should get the bell in the end. I will tell you, a lot failed at this point,"

"The second part is to know whether you will blindly follow orders and sacrifice your teammates for the sake of the mission or the other way around," Kakashi continued.

"But Sensei...just now you emphasised on the importance of the mission...but now..." Karin said.

"Yes, missions are important, but that depends," Karin and Sakura had a puzzled look. "Missions are issued by people and people aren't perfect. So missions can be flawed. Some missions might require you to do the unthinkable, which requires you to cross certain line that you could not cross. Missions, that, compared to your teammate's lives, isn't worth it,"

"But, wouldn't it be bad for us to fail a mission and an order," Sakura asked again.

"In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum," Kakashi said. "Remember that to you heart and take it to your grave.

"I...see. So this is about the importance of a team, right?" Karin said and Kakashi nodded.

"A man's true wealth isn't measured by his material possessions, but the people he have knowing him, be it friend or foe. It doesn't matter how strong you are, or how good you are, if you're dick, it won't matter. Your attitude determines your altitude," Kakashi advised.

"Sasuke..." Kakashi said to Sasuke and Sasuke turn to look at him. "Great and important men are often leaders. And leaders are nothing without his people. A country's true treasure is not of its natural wealth, but its people. A king is nothing without his subjects," Sasuke looked away.

"That's why Naruto said that you must set your priorities right. Do you want to avenge your clan first or rebuilt it? You might not come back if you choose revenge first. Is your clan's honour more important than its survival?"

Sasuke didn't answer. "Pride is the first and deadliest of sin Sasuke, and the source of downfall for many of the strong. Remember that. No amount of pride nor honour can bring back the dead nor would it be useful when you have no one by your side,"

"One day, you will be the leader of the Uchiha Clan. Will you shape it to become better than before or will history repeat itself?" Kakashi said and was met with a deadly glare. "Think about it Sasuke,"

Everyone turned to look at the Uchiha heir but turned back at Kakashi. "Well, you guys pass, congrats! We will celebrate sometime later after our emotions are cleared, so meet you guys back here at 7am! Don't be late!"

Everyone except Sasuke groaned at this and Kakashi disappeared again, leaving the Genins to themselves.

_**FLASHBACK END**_

Ichigo whistled at this. "Wow, you guys sure know how to make things complicated,"

"Yeah," Rukia nodded. "That sure brings back memories, right guys?" the boys nodded.

_**FLASHBACK AGAIN!**_

All three of them were tied to a tree stump and Kenzo was in front of them. "What is this? I believe Ichigo failed but then Naruto offered his bell, then Rukia disagrees and offered her bell but then Ichigo refused and then all the three of you got in a fight on who should be the sacrifice and I got confused and so tied all of you guys up,"

Everyone mumbled something at this. "So come to a conclusion dammit! Who should I fail?"

"No one," Naruto mumbled.

"Not accepted!" Kenzo flicked a bug into his mouth.

"Fine...then all of us," Rukia said and looked away.

"Your brother won't be pleased," Kenzo said.

"So? This is my team, not his," Rukia said confidently. "A team's failure and success is everyone's, not an individual's,"

Kenzo then looked at the two boys. "Do you guys agree to fail together?" Ichigo looked at Naruto, (Rukia got mad by this cause she was tied to the middle stump and she was so short that the boys could see each other very well) and they nodded.

"What she said," Ichigo said.

"Yeah, what shorty said," Naruto smirked as Rukia tried to kick him but her short legs won't reach him.

"Fine then, you guys failed spectacularly with flying colours and succeed!" Kenzo threw his arm to the air.

"Wait...do we failed or do we succeeded?" Naruto asked.

"Both," Kenzo deadpanned.

"So...we originally were supposed to fail in the first place?" Ichigo asked.

"No," Kenzo deadpanned again.

"Then what is it?" Rukia asked, her temper rising at Kenzo's vague answer.

"Originally, one of you was to fail but you guys decided to fail together," Kenzo replied and the three of them sweatdropped.

"Anyway! You guys work together as a team to bring me down beautifully and that was the theme of this test, TEAMWORK!" Kenzo said excitedly.

The three of them mumbled incoherently. The truth was, as good as their teamwork was, they still couldn't bring the damn cat down. And Kenzo beat them again and again no matter what they did.

"When you can't fight against quality, counter it with quantity!" Kenzo continued, not caring about their mumbling. "Have you heard the saying, "Death by thousand cuts?"" Kenzo asked them.

The three of them nodded their head. "Do you know why?"

"Cause the guy was so awesome that he can cut people a thousand times?" Ichigo said and got a bug flicked into his mouth.

"Wrong! It is because the cuts are pathetically weak! So pathetic that it took a thousand cuts to kill someone!" Kenzo stated and the three Genins had their jaws open. Kenzo immediately flicked bugs into their mouths.

"It shows that quantity can overcome quality! It also shows that the person who does the cuts are extremely determined and never gave up! His tenacity is to be admired!" Kenzo said.

"Err...right..." Rukia said.

"It shows that if your attack can even hurt a little, even for 1 damage, never give up and keep hacking and slicing until your foe is down! No matter how cruel it could be to your enemy," Kenzo said and nod his head, as if confirming the facts.

"That also brings us to Ways of Ninja number..." Kenzo scratched his head.

"18," Naruto said.

"Wasn't it 25?" Ichigo said next.

"I thought 40?" Rukia said.

"99!" The three Genins rolled their eyes at him. "A strong person can fall to hundreds!"

"And I thought Yoruichi was the loony one," Ichigo grumbled.

_**FLASHBACK ENDED AGAIN!**_

"Yep, good times" Naruto said while hugging his tree branch tighter. Ichigo and Rukia shivered a bit at the thought of their loony teacher.

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **So there it is, the Konoha's first five people Genin team. Now some of you guys might be disappointed that I chose to place Naruto in team 7 but I honestly think that is the best for Naruto and Sasuke to develop their relationship as well as Sakura and Karin. If I were to place Naruto in a different team, then I would have to create two OCs or probably one if I decided to use Sai and OC is a difficult task to manage. Not only do I have to think of names, skill description and such, I would also have to give it some spotlight and in the end, you guys might get put off by it.

Besides, the four of them won't interact as well as they do if they were in different teams.

Anyway, you guys might know what's next. The Wave country mission. Now some of you might got bored by it because it was done to death over and over again like FPS games using WW2 settings but I'm sorry, I have to use it. Why?

Because I got to showcase my strong girl Haku! Yeah that's right, girl Haku. The truth is, for the only genuine Ice user, Haku had a very small arsenal of Ice techniques. So I'm giving her upgrades that she's more than a match for Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, Sakura and Karin combined. She's Zabuza's ultimate weapon. That and after the Wave mission, it will be a turning point for a lot of characters.

And of course I would be using zanpakutos in this story and Naruto is going to get his own. Zanpakuto's mechanics will be explained later to explain why everyone in my fic didn't get it. Main characters might get it if you guys want to and have ideas for the sword.

Look for it guys and please review!

Also, as to why I tend to switch between English and Japanese names for techniques is because of convenience's sake. Some Japanese name is hard to write and some people who isn't very good with Japanese(I know I do) will get confused as to what the skills is being used. But this can work in reverse if the English names is sucky or too long. Like The Flying Thunder God Jutsu. Damn that's long. So bear with me. Plus, any new techniques will be in English as I feared translating them would have different meaning or sounded weird.

Oh right:

*FML = Fuck My Life

**FYL= Fuck Your Life

And jutsus:

**Storm Leg: **Another skill borrowed from One Piece's Rokushiki skill set. (I might borrow all of them). The storm leg is purely taijutsu as the user, with enough speed and strength can kick the air to send a sharp and compressed air blade that is capable of damage. There are many variants of this skill and the **Victorious Bird **is one of them. Also, the Storm Leg isn't limited to kicks however, as hands and bladed weapons can also be used to the same effect, as long as they have the necessary speed and strength. It's just that kicks generates more force than a punch, hence the reason why the leg is favored for this skill.

**Storm Leg: Victorious Bird: ** A storm leg variant, and arguably the strongest. Usually, this variant is limited to NekoNins as claws are needed to form this variant. However, claws can be replaced by something else sharp and as such; Naruto usually has concealed multipurpose knives in his boot to execute this skill.

And finally, Ways of Ninja:

Ways of Ninja 99(Kenzo's getting ridiculous): A strong person can fall to hundreds.

Ways of Ninja 100: Never think that you're invincible.


	7. Chapter 6: Wave! Demons of The Mist

**Author's Note: **Guys! I made another story based on NekoNin Foxy! Check it out. Oh yeah, with me writing the other story it doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon this one, or my other stories for that matter. I'll just update alternatively or more if I can. In fact, I didn't plan to update NekoNin this fast, but some of you were paranoid thinking that I abandoned this story! It made my manly heart cry and so I post this one for you guys. Thanks you guys.

Anyway, a reader, TobiFan321 asked when will the story continue to the Chunin exams? Well, after this arc. The truth is, the Chunin exam used in the beginning of the story was just to attract readers. If I didn't, I'm not sure I'll have the amount of attention this story has now.

Also, this story will have harem. It's just that Naruto won't easily get his harem like most stories do. He has to acquire it and the girls won't make it easy for him, even after they are in the harem. So yeah, the harem will come a bit late but I promise that it will start to appear in the Chunin exams. And it will be twisted.

* * *

**CHAPTER 6: WAVE COUNTRY! PART 1: DEMONS OF THE MIST**

**Random Forest between Kumo and Iwa**

Ichigo and Rukia were already long gone heading back to Nekogakure. Naruto was still inside the forest, but a few miles away from the battle site. It was already dark, so he's going to camp here for the night.

After a dinner of spiced fish, Naruto was again on top of tree branch. The branch will be his bed for the night.

"Right, let's do this then," Naruto pulled out a seal tag from a pocket of his ANBU uniform and flared his chakra through it. In a puff of smoke, his ANBU uniform was replaced with his usual Survival Suit.

"Ah, the magics of sealing. Really have to master it fast," Naruto said and took out his book about sealing and sat again. The thing that he just did was a Sealing Technique: Swap Seal. It works by swapping two items that has the right seal tagged on it instantly. It functions much like a Replacement technique but instead used on items rather than yourself.

This way, he can instantly change between his Survival Suit which is for normal uses and his ANBU uniform for battle uses. Besides, doesn't want his precious Survival Suit to get damaged. That thing cost him an arm and a leg!

Anyway, when not used, his clothing and other items are stored in a seal using his body as the medium. Usually things are stored in scrolls and such but other items can also be used. Like the human body. The Kyuubi was stored in him after all. So Naruto had another storage seal tattoo on right thigh to store his items.

After half an hour, Naruto closed the book, finally finished with it. The book was the last book that was released publicly about sealing techniques and it only covers seals for civilian and everyday use. Any seal for combat or other dangerous stuff isn't available through normal means.

This is understandable. It would be bad if ninja or dangerous techniques are released to the public like newspaper. The potential for destruction and chaos is unimaginable.

So it is safe to say that Naruto is now a master of harmless sealing techniques. He could make seals for everyday use like silencing seals, storage seals, weight manipulation seals and so on. The rate of him to be a master was rather terrifying for him. Normal people would take months or years just to reach his level but it only took him a week to master it!

Well, Naruto isn't normal people. He had the advantage of being an Uzumaki, who specialises in sealing techniques after all. That and he have the help of his wonderful clones. Wonderful and noble clones; they became his guinea pigs in testing the seals that he made and sacrifice for the malfunctioning seals.

So right now, to advance, he needed to acquire seal techniques made for combat. Well, he could just ask the old man for it. Or better yet, go to Uzu to find any scrolls left behind. If there is any.

Seeing as he was done with sealing for the moment, Naruto decided to learn elemental affinity next. He's still in a fix on which to learn and the help he got from his teammates doesn't help much either.

_**FLASHBACK**_

"ICE!" Rukia said with pride, her chest held high.

"You do realise not everyone can do ice?" Ichigo said and Rukia's chest inflated. "Lightning!"

"I know right? I want to learn lightning too!" Naruto said and both boys grinned. Rukia rolled her eyes.

"You said lightning because Zangetsu is lightning based!"

"And you said ice because Shirayuki is ice based!"

"Lightning doesn't combo with his wind!"

"It doesn't have to combo!"

Naruto sighed and smiled. He sure got a strange team. Ichigo and Rukia tend to get into fight, a lot. But it was a good natured fight, like one would have between a brother and sister. Still, even though they fight and argue a lot, when it comes to teamwork, they were flawless.

"Guys! Do you want to know something weird?" Naruto asked and he got the attention of both cats. Naruto then told them the encounter he had with certain Kumo ninja, Yugito Nii. He told that he had a bad feeling that he should have learnt water beforehand but he didn't and resulted in him almost losing the fight against the fire cat.

"Woah! You got ninjutsu sense!" Ichigo said with amazement.

"Then you should learn water! It combos with your wind!" Rukia stated. Ichigo and Naruto stared at each other for a moment before...

"Nah, I'll take lightning," Naruto said, Ichigo crossed his chest and nodded with his eyes closed as if Naruto had made the wisest choice ever and Rukia face palmed so hard the 'smack' could be heard for miles!

_**FLASHBACK ENDS**_

Naruto chuckled at the memory and sighed. He wished that one day; he could have the same conversation with his new team. Well, not the exact same but in the same mood...you know.

Anyway, Naruto then stored his book and took out his elemental scrolls again. He was about to take the lightning scroll when suddenly, he got the same feeling of dread that he should learn earth instead.

"...okay I should listen to myself for once," Naruto said and took the earth scroll instead and stored the others. And so he began to learn earth element, the element that long ago, he planned to learn it last but in ironic twist, he's learning it first.

To learn the basic of elemental affinity is easy...in theory. People who wanted to know their affinity would use a special paper, the chakra paper. The paper was from a tree that was nurtured carefully with chakra so that it would react to chakra passing through them.

So if you flared your chakra through this chakra paper, it will show you your elemental affinity, and probably elemental bloodline too if you have any. Anyway, if the paper split in half, wind. Turn wet, water. Burst into flames, fire. If it wrinkles, lightning and finally, if it crumbles to dust, earth.

But that is how you wanted to know your affinity. To learn, use the same principle but using different material. Instead of chakra paper, use other stuff like normal paper or leaves. This is how Naruto learn the basic of wind; he has to cut a leaf into two.

So now, he has to make the leaf whither or crumble to dust. But of course, this can be hard if this isn't the first element you're learning as Naruto found out the hard way. Most of the training leaves was cut into two and not withered. This is why learning another elemental affinity was hard, because you could get confused between the two.

Half an hour later, Naruto and his numerous clones heard some sounds. Immediately, his clones all popped, numerous leaves floating away and leaving the real Naruto alone. Naruto then as usual, made himself invisible.

Moments later, the source of the sound appeared and it was...Yugito Nii?

"Wha? Her again?" Naruto whispered and a sense of déjà vu tingled inside of him. Naruto then saw Yugito dropping her firewood to the ground and began to scan the trees around her. "Heh, looks like she learnt something from our encounter," Naruto smirked.

Yugito scanned the trees around her, not wanting another repeat of that incident with the Host of Nine Tails. While she was busy checking...

"Hey! We meet again!" Naruto said, hanging upside down from a tree branch.

Yugito immediately spun and threw a kunai at the voice. Naruto captured it and dropped down. "See? That's what would have happened if I revealed myself to you the first time we met!"

Yugito, realising who it was, smiled a moment before frowned. She smiled because it was the Host of the Nine Tails, someone who she could trust. On another hand, she frowned because it was exactly the Host of the Nine Tails, the same one that dropped on her and made her wary of trees!

Still, Yugito calmed herself down and realised the Konoha headband on his head. "So, finally a Genin, huh?"

Naruto grinned and gave her a double thumb up. "Of course! This is the future Kage you're talking about!"

Yugito thought that it was weird when Naruto said 'Kage' instead of 'Hokage' but smiled. "Well, future Kage," Yugito bowed. "What are you doing here? And where is your teammates?"

Naruto immediately went pale. "Uh," he scratched his head. He can't tell her his mission especially when that mission is S-ranked! "I'm on vacation!"

Yugito raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged. She didn't want to push further because she could use it to her advantage. If he didn't want to tell her things, so can she.

"Alright, so uh...wanna camp together?" Yugito asked and it was Naruto's turn to raise his eyebrow. It was unusual for ninja's of differing villages to camp together when not on allied missions.

The truth was, Yugito knew that Naruto was a good guy and won't likely do anything bad to her. It's just that...she wanted to taste his spiced fish again so badly! "Okay?" Naruto hesitantly answered. "Do we get to-"

"No!" Yugito blushed hard on knowing what Naruto meant to ask.

"Okay, just wanting to know where my boundary is," Naruto said turning away and Yugito felt bad a little.

"So, you make dinner while I set up the tent," Yugito said and Naruto looked sceptical.

"Okay," Naruto said. He had dinner, true but it didn't hurt to eat more, right? After all, ninja's tend to burn calories quickly. Have you ever seen a fat ninja? Oh wait...you have. But that's different, as their fat is actually an advantage to them.

After a while, everything was set up and Naruto's spiced fish sent off a tempting scent to Yugito's nose. **'Damn! That kid makes one good spiced fish!' **Nibi the demon cat said inside Yugito's head.

'I know!' Yugito agreed mentally. 'I wonder if it is because of the spices he uses?'

Naruto then picked up a cooked fish and was about to hand it to Yugito when he realised something.

Yugito was sitting like a cat. And Naruto swore that if Yugito had cat tails, it would swish around. Yugito also was focusing on the fish in his hand. Naruto then moved his hand around and Yugito's eyes followed suit. He moved it in a circle and Yugito eyed the fish in a circle.

Naruto then grinned evilly. "Oops!" Naruto said and dropped the fish and Naruto could see in slow motion, the horrified look on Yugito's face.

"NO!" Yugito screamed and leapt after the fish. The next thing Naruto knew was that Yugito was on top of him with the fish in her mouth. She then proceeded to eat the fish happily with a loud purr. Naruto's mouth was wide open at seeing this.

This sight was normal to him...if you replace the person on top of him with cat people. Food fight was common especially with the younger ones. But normal human? Especially a woman? This was new to him.

After halfway through the fish did only Yugito realised her position. She then glared Naruto angrily for manipulating her and smacked him lightly on his forehead. Not that it would hurt, considering that it hit his forehead protector but it gets the message across.

"Sorry," Naruto said while they were getting up. "More fish?" Naruto handed her another fish and she gladly accept it and after a while, things went back to normal again and they began to chat with one another again.

It turns out that Yugito was tasked with investigating strange monsters that appeared in the forest. But as soon as she arrived, the monsters were gone and the place showed signs of battle, to which Yugito eyed Naruto suspiciously but Naruto gave her a puzzled look. Yugito sighed, the kid was good in hiding things.

After a while...

"So...I guess it's time to hit the bed..."Yugito said and Naruto nodded.

"Yep! So, I uh...take watch?" Naruto offered and now Yugito felt bad. Not only did he cooked for her, and has no tent to sleep in, he also has offered to watch the camp!

Yugito didn't had any time to state her opinion when Naruto was gone. Yugito sighed and entered the tent and lied down.

'**What a nice man. I thought that Kyuubi would have corrupted him by now,' **Nibi said and Yugito nodded.

'Well, it seems that their limited interaction contributed to that,' Yugito replied.

'**And I'm sure that he has a nice body too. Combined with the stamina from Kyu-'**

'Nibi...what did we talked about?'

'**Come on! It's been a while you had sex!'**

'We almost killed the last one, remember?'

'**And that guy called himself a man,'**

Yugito rolled her eyes. 'I'm not going to have sex with just about anyone!'

'**Grr...what is it with you having sex with a few guys until you found the one?'**

'I'm not a slave to my instincts or body, unlike someone. And I'm not choosing my future love based on sex! Sex would just be a bonus!'

'**Feh! What if your love has a tiny dick? His physical is also important for healthy kittens,' **

Yugito sighed. It's hard to argue with someone who had different morals and way of life.

'**Come on! The kid can cook! And combined with his 'other' gifts, he's the perfect package! You won't find any other like him! Well...aside from Killer Bee. But if he's your type...'**

Yugito groaned. She did have feelings for the Eight Tail's Host but it was just admiration! Besides...

'We're cousins for Kami's sake!' Yugito screamed inside her head and Nibi realised she went too far.

'**So? We have no problems doing it with our own brother,'** Nibi said softly.

'Animals do that! Humans don't! You always forgot what species you're in now!' Yugito said furiously and Nibi didn't say anything.

'**Right, right. Sorry. I won't push this matter anymore,'**

'You better be! And if I found that in the morning you used my body-'

'**Okay, okay! I get it!' **Nibi said. Yugito can be scary when she's mad. And the things that she could do to punish her...well, Nibi didn't want to experience it again.

"Good!" Yugito said loudly and hugged her pillow to sleep.

The next morning came by uneventfully. Naruto and Yugito was about to head their separate ways when...

"So...any chance that you couldn't tell me what happened in the forest before we met?" Yugito asked.

"Nope. I guess I was too late to see anything," Naruto replied.

"And any chance for me to have that wonderful spice of yours?" Yugito said with a grin.

"No way! This thing-"Naruto took out and hugged his spices, "-will be my lifeline in case you felt the need to harm or kill me,"

Yugito laughed and shook her head while Naruto smiled. "Fine. Well, see you again?" Yugito said and extended her arm.

Naruto stored his spice and took her arm. "Sure,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Naruto arrived at Konoha a few hours after separating with Yugito. Luckily for him, his NekoNin mission occurred during the weekend when they aren't any Genin missions. Well, actually there is but it is up to the team to take it. Luckily, their Sensei was adamant to have his weekend so now Team 7 officially has only five working days.

Speaking of Genin missions...he remembered the ones that he and his NekoNin team had to do...

_**FLASHBACK**_

Being a Genin is tough work, but harmless. They were limited to D-Ranked and C-Rank missions. D-Rank was more to menial labour inside the villages requested by the residents themselves. Missions that doesn't harm the ninja...physically. Like painting fences, mow the lawn, etc etc.

C-Rank missions are a step up to the harmless D-Rank and have risk to harm the ninja, but not life threatening.

Naruto's team, or the Bleach team as it was called. Their team was named like that because of Ichigo's and Naruto's hair, which the residents said that it looked as if it was bleached. Ichigo and Naruto could only reply with a "Rigghtt,"

Most of their missions weren't so bad, if it wasn't requested by Byakuya, Rukia's big brother. He would make Rukia sit and rest while giving tough jobs to Naruto and Ichigo. Especially Ichigo.

Anyway, after countless D-Rank missions (not really countless, they just didn't want to count it), they were about to take another mission, hopefully a C-Rank when they noticed that Rukia looked down.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"My rabbit is gone!" Rukia said.

"Yuki's gone? How?" Ichigo asked.

"I don't know! We tried to search for her but still couldn't find her!" Rukia bawled. Rukia had a soft spot for cute stuff and rabbits. Especially if both are combined.

"They couldn't find it? That must be a ninja rabbit!" Kenzo said and Ichigo and Naruto eyed Kenzo suspiciously.

"Or **someone** must have kidnapped it!" Naruto said and Kenzo showed no emotion.

"Oh? Someone said lost rabbit?" Ukitake, a white haired cat said. He's one of the top Jounins of Nekogakure, except that he was struck with a disease that doesn't allow prolonged fights. "I just got a mission for a lost pet. It was strange though,"

Rukia immediately perked up. "Strange? Why?"

"Well, it was from an anon, specially issued to you guys and even got a message. It says..."To the owner of the white rabbit, Yuki, if you want to see her again, you better take this mission!" Ukitake said. Naruto and Ichigo sweatdropped.

"We'll take it!" Rukia said.

"Well, it seems that our pet is not lost, but was kidnapped instead. So we have no choice but to comply with the kidnapper's wishes!" Kenzo said. Ichigo, Rukia, Naruto and Ukitake eyed him.

"Really?" Ukitake said.

"Yes! If we don't, then the kidnapper will lose interest with the rabbit and that will bad!" Kenzo said.

"You wouldn't!" Rukia asked in horror.

"I wouldn't, but the kidnapper **would**," Kenzo death glared at the last part. Rukia looked like she was about to cry but she steeled herself.

"Fine! Let's go guys!" Rukia said.

"And I thought that Zaraki was a monster," Ichigo said.

The mission turned into a detective game, with the team having to find clues, solve them, which leads to other clues and solve them, rinse and repeat. It didn't help that the clues was all over Nekogakure. The team, minus Kenzo of course have to use all their knowledge to solve the clues.

In the end, the all the clues were solved but it didn't lead to the rabbit, though. The rabbit showed up back in its home the next morning.

The mission turned out to be the best D-Ranked mission they've ever had. And although Kenzo was the perpetrator; which of course he wouldn't admit it, the team, especially Rukia forgave him. The rabbit was fine and considering the effort that Kenzo put into the game, it was all in good nature...albeit in a twisted good nature.

_**FLASHBACK END**_

Anyway, so far Team 7 had done nine missions, which were boring of course.

Now about the team. Sasuke, after the test, didn't improve much, socially. In terms of training, he still preferred to train alone and his ego was still holding him from seeking out help from Naruto or Kakashi. If only he ask, Naruto could train him and teach him something. Like the Rokushiki art. But still...

Sakura improved a bit as she was more into training than before but alas, she took after Sasuke. Sakura viewed Karin as her rival, which something that Karin doesn't even consider her to be one at all. So, she chose to train by herself too.

Naruto sighed. Sakura has perfect chakra control, which is expected from someone that has small to medium chakra source. If she just approach Karin and ask her something, she could learn some medic skills, in which she might see that it would be her forte instead of offensive ninjutsus.

But no! She just had to take after Sasuke!

Karin was much better though. Having quite good medic skills, and having clones helping her learn stuff, she began to increase her study tremendously like someone who was addicted. Her study wasn't limited to books, but also to other stuff like taijutsu since she knew that was what she lacked all along.

Good for her.

The next day, Monday, the team was in front of the Mission Reception lobby for more missions. After capturing the Fire Lord's wife's cat, Tora again, the team was ready for their next mission for the day. Poor cat, having that kind of master, it was understandable for its actions. And the cat made of most of the D-ranked missions too! And by now, every Genin team had the mission to capture it.

Anyway, as usual, on the menu is D-Ranked again.

Naruto didn't mind doing more D-Ranked, as he just got from a kick-ass S-Ranked mission. Sakura and Karin also didn't mind as they're the type to obey whatever was ordered to them. Sasuke however...

'More D-Ranked? When I will take on the more dangerous missions? I need to test my skill! I can't just sit here and do chores!' Sasuke mused.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama," Sasuke asked and got the attention of everyone. This was the first time he talked when taking missions! Even Kakashi stopped reading his book. "I think that we-"

'You mean 'I'' Naruto thought with a grin.

"-are ready for higher ranked mission," Sasuke said.

The Hokage smiled. It won't bode well to held the Uchiha kid for long. "Well, from your statistic, yes your team is ready for C-Ranked missions. In fact, you're in luck. We have a relatively simple mission for your team,"

Sasuke cringed at the word 'simple' but didn't say anything. He didn't want to push his luck.

"It's a bodyguard mission of a certain individual named Tazuna. I'll call him in," Iruka said and the target walked into the room.

"Hmm... four Genins? That's new," Tazuna, the elderly man said and drink his bottle of sake. "Well, guess your team got quantity, I give you that,"

"So, never heard of you before. Why are you important again?" Naruto said with a smile and Karin, Sakura, Kakashi and Iruka all 'ouched'.

Tazuna huffed. "The name is Tazuna and I'm the super expert bridge builder. So I expect you guys to give me super protection till I got home, got it?"

"You want super; you pay for higher ranked priority mission. But since this is all that you could afford...well quite surprising really considering that with your 'super' skill, you wouldn't have any problem with it," Naruto replied and the same people 'ouched' again. Naruto and Tazuna glared at each other before Kakashi stepped in.

"Okay! Let's do this shall we? The faster the better!" Kakashi said and Team 7 with their target began their journey.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Their journey to Wave Country was torturing. Naruto didn't want to talk with the old man as no doubt, they would start their verbal war again and that would be bad. Sasuke as usual didn't talk; Karin was reading her book and so was Kakashi but luckily, Sakura decided to end the silence.

Sakura asked about whether Wave country had any ninjas and Kakashi then explained the situation that not all country had any ninjas, especially the smaller ones and had to rely on the ninja villages like Konoha for ninjas.

Naruto and Karin sighed at this. So much for a book smart kunoichi. She didn't even know something this simple? Still, Naruto was glad for her move. Sakura was worried that they might encounter foreign ninjas but Kakashi assured them that they won't, to Sasuke's chagrin.

Tazuna however, looked worried.

And then they came across a puddle which the team walked nearby. Naruto and Kakashi realised something was wrong but decided to keep quiet. Both could have handled the problem easily but Naruto was sure that Sasuke would like to handle them.

And sure enough, when the group passed by the puddle, two men in masks emerged from the puddle and attacked. The men each had one gauntlet on each arm with a shuriken chain running between them. Kakashi was easily ripped to shreds by the chain and was about to attack Naruto next. But Sasuke had 'saved' him and easily defeated both of them.

Kakashi appeared few moments later (they ripped a log, as usual) to help tie the Demon Brothers. They were missing ninjas from Kiri.

"Where did they come from?" Sakura asked after the situation was in their control.

"The puddle we went by just now," Naruto explained.

"What puddle?" Sakura asked again.

Naruto and Kakashi sighed. Tazuna tensed and decided that the truth must be told.

"Kakashi-san, I must tell you something," Tazuna started. And the whole truth was revealed. It turns out that Wave was a small island that got its shipping business controlled by a greedy shipping magnate turned mafia leader or the sort. His name was Gatou and he was one of the wealthiest people in the world.

So, an island's shipping traffic got controlled, no one wants to go to Wave as even if they did, high tax would be a problem. Wave Country turned poor and Tazuna aimed to fix this by building a bridge that would eliminate the need for ships. And of course, Gatou wouldn't have that so he hired ninja's to kill him before the bridge could be completed.

Which was stupid. Why couldn't he just wait for the bridge to finish and bomb it up? That would definitely destroy any morale left from the people. After all, for a poor country like Wave, they wouldn't able to afford to rebuild the bridge.

And it would be simpler too. Just tag a ship with few hundred exploding tags and ram it to the bridge or put the tags on the bridge itself. That would be expensive but...

Naruto sighed. Greedy people. Of course! Minimise loss for maximum profit. Ninja's were definitely cheaper than hundreds of exploding tag and a ship. That and exploding ships and bridges tend to attract attention.

Tazuna then used his technique to lure the team to do what he wants. The 'It's-okay-my-problem-isn't-much' technique.

Kakashi wanted to help but he couldn't risk Sasuke. Being a Sensei to the last Uchiha was a troublesome job. The council kept pestering him to play favourites with the Uchiha and threatening him to keep the boy safe. If he dies, well, that would be troublesome.

"Let's do it. You see what happened before," Sasuke said and Sakura swooned at Sasuke's coolness.

Ah, if the kid himself volunteered, then that would be a different story now, wouldn't it? Kakashi eye smiled and they continued with the mission.

The Demon Brothers snickered. The kid didn't know about much about the world doesn't he? If one way doesn't work, use another way that's much better. If one ninja can't finish the job, send someone much stronger. Did the kid think that Gato was just going to stop?

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Wave Country**

They finally managed to sneak in into Wave successfully and were on their way to Tazuna's house when...

"Get down!" Kakashi said and everyone ducked just as a large sword went flying by them. The sword got stuck to a tree and a man appeared standing on the handle. The man wore baggy pants but no shirt. Strangely, he decided to cover his mouth much like Kakashi. On his head is a slashed forehead protector of Kiri.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the missing ninja from Kiri, Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist," Kakashi said at the man.

"And if it isn't the Copy Ninja from Konoha, Hatake Kakashi," Zabuza said. "Kakashi, I offer you this; give me the old man and I let you and your hatchlings live,"

Sasuke tensed at this. 'Hatchlings?'

"Sorry, no can do. It would scare my cute Genins if I let you kill the old man. This is their first C-Ranked mission after all," Kakashi replied.

Zabuza laughed. "I've been through much worse before I was a Genin!"

Naruto approached Karin and whispered into her ears. "Karin, use your ability to check for any enemy reinforcements. He might not be alone like the previous guys,"

Karin nodded and executed her Mind's Eye of The Kagura and found another chakra source. "You're right, there's another one hiding the woods,"

Naruto nodded. "Kakashi Sensei, can you handle Zabuza? I have to take a leak,"

Kakashi, Karin and Tazuna sweatdropped. Sasuke and Sakura couldn't believe that he could be taking a leak at this crucial moment! Unless...

'So Naruto finally caved in under a strong opponent, huh? Looks like you're all talk, Naruto,' Sasuke thought.

Zabuza however...'has the kid found out about Haku? No matter, not like he can do anything anyway,'

Kakashi knew what Naruto truly meant and nodded. "Just don't take too long, I might want to take a piss too,"

Everyone except Naruto and Kakashi sweatdropped. Naruto nodded and ran into the woods.

"Kids, protect Tazuna," Kakashi said. "This guy is way out of your league,"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Haku was observing the whole scenario from a tree branch when the blonde kid decided to ran into the forest. Now this had made his job harder. He was supposed to observe the team and find anything of interest that could be used later but the group split.

Oh well, not like that kid is of any danger after all.

"So, anything interesting down there?" a voice said and Haku quickly spun around to see the source of the voice. Naruto was standing on another branch, leaning on the trunk with his arms in his pockets. He was scanning Haku up and down.

'How?' "Yes, indeed. I'm a hunter ninja from Kiri, as you can see," Haku pointed towards his symbol on his mask. "And I'm here for Zabuza,"

"How wonderful! So why don't you join my Sensei in taking him down? I'm sure with the both of you, Zabuza's good as dead," Naruto said with a grin.

Haku was nervous for a moment before collecting himself again. "Sorry, but if join you guys, Zabuza would have run,"

"So you're waiting for Zabuza to tire himself from fighting my Sensei before striking him?" Naruto said and Haku nodded.

"Unhanded and cruel, yes but needed," Haku replied.

Naruto was quiet as he decides whether or not to believe the ninja in front of him. What he said was plausible as you wouldn't want to just barge in a fight and team up with a foreign ninja. The teamwork would be somewhat bad. Fortunately, Naruto knew something that could help.

"So, the Mizukage sent you then?" Naruto asked and Haku nodded.

"Who's the Mizukage then?" Naruto asked again and Haku didn't reply. "For all I know you could be an impostor,"

"Yagu-" Haku didn't finish as a Storm Leg went flying vertically towards him. Haku dodged it and the Storm Leg cleaved the upper part of the tree behind him in half.

"In case you didn't know, Yagura was dead a year ago," Naruto said. Luckily, Naruto was a NekoNin and Nekogakure prided in knowing what's going on in the ninja world. Kirigakure was in a state of civil war ages ago but like its name; Hidden Village of The Mist, what happened there, the world didn't know much about it. Having 'Hidden' combined with 'Mist' as the name helped.

The world for one didn't realise that the civil war was over with the victory for the Rebels that resulted in the death of its Fourth Mizukage Yagura.

And luckily for him, the Kiri missing ninjas doesn't update themselves about their own hometown.

Haku 'tched' and readied himself for combat. 'Have to distract him long enough until Zabuza-san kills Kakashi!'

Haku then threw three shurikens at Naruto. Naruto then flashed his handseals and created a wind sphere on each hand. He then intercepted two shurikens in each sphere while narrowly evading the last one that was aimed to his neck.

Haku was amazed with the jutsu Naruto used just now. The shuriken was spinning furiously inside the wind sphere.

"Wind Technique: Projectile Capture," Naruto said. "And now, Wind Technique: Wind Enhanced Tools,"

Haku's eyes widened as the wind sphere was absorbed into the shurikens and Naruto put a finger into each of the shuriken's hole. Naruto then held the shurikens to his side as large spinning wind blades formed from the shurikens, turning it into a spinning giant wind shuriken.

Naruto threw one at Haku horizontally and Haku jumped down into the forest floor below. The shuriken cut the tree in half and it fell down, much to the attention of others.

Naruto had already jumped down the moment he threw the first shuriken as he knew that Haku would jump down, not up. Most ninja's doesn't have the ability to change direction mid-air, and from the look of it, Haku isn't one of them.

As soon as Haku and Naruto touched the ground, Naruto threw the second shuriken horizontally again. Haku ducked and threw three senbons in wide arc instead. Naruto jumped and in the air, kicked a small vertical Storm Leg at Haku.

The truth is, shurikens and senbons won't hit him as his survival suit would stop it before it went all the way, but he didn't want to damage his extremely expensive suit. Speaking of which, he should change soon...

Haku quickly charged forward while avoiding the attack and pull out a kunai and three senbons. Haku threw the senbons and again, to his amazement, Naruto Moon Step higher. Naruto countered with more Storm Legs but Haku evaded them and jumped to a tree.

'This kid is strong! I should start to use my ninjutsus, but...I should hold on for a while longer,' Haku thought and scaled a tree. Haku then threw a tear bomb at Naruto but Naruto Moon Stepped higher towards Haku's tree.

Naruto was now on top of Haku but he didn't stick to the tree but instead, letting himself fall towards Haku, his legs aimed at him. Haku was about to slash his feet with his kunai when he saw that small fangs appeared from the bottom of his sole!

'Fuck! This kid is well prepared!' Haku noted and kicked the tree to jump away from the falling Naruto. Naruto anticipated this and somersaulted in the air.

"Storm Leg: Victorious Bird!" a large vertical bird shaped air blade raced towards Haku. Haku had no choice but to execute him technique.

"Ice Techinque: Ice Shield!" Haku said and a large shield of ice appeared and shields himself from the attack.

The attack pushed Haku away from the forest, destroying a few trees on the way and unto the clearing where Team 7 was. Haku regained himself and landed on his feet, relatively unharmed.

Naruto appeared a few second later. "So...an Ice User huh? Never thought I see another Yuki..." Naruto said. The Yuki Clan was the only clan known for their Bloodline ability to control ice. Ever since the clan's purge, people thought that the clan was already destroyed like the Uchiha.

But this was wrong of course. Their indirect descendants lived on, as evident by Rukia and Toshiro Hitsugaya. But, looks like the direct descendant lived.

And he's a very strong one, as evidenced by the still intact, albeit damaged shield. The shield was shaped into an oni mask.

"And you've seen my ability. For that you must die," Haku said calmly. Being the last of a clan is troublesome as people would want to kill you to completely eradicate your clan or use you to revive your clan but usually not in a good way.

Haku was about to execute his skill when a large wave crashed behind him. Haku spun around and saw Zabuza was backed to a tree with kunais stuck to his body. Kakashi who was on top of the tree was ready to finish him.

Haku's eyes widened and he quickly threw the shield at Kakashi like a boomerang. The shield spun towards Kakashi but he jumped away, however Haku made a handseal. "Ice Technique: Spread!" The shield then grew larger in length and managed to slice Kakashi's thigh before slicing the tree and flew away.

Naruto, seeing that Haku was distracted, leapt at him but Haku Flickered and appeared front of Zabuza.

Haku flashed his handseals and executed his technique, "Ice Technique: Frost Diver!"

Ice spikes speared into existence from the ground and raced towards Team 7. Kakashi who was in mid air and Sasuke realised this and casted their Grand Fireball technique at the ice spikes. The massive flame consumed the ice spike before fading away.

And Sasuke found himself facing an ice spike that was very close in spearing through his head had it not melted...a bit. Haku and Zabuza was gone however.

Kakashi landed beside Sasuke and placed his hand on his shoulder, breaking away the Uchiha's attention from the ice spike. Naruto appeared beside Kakashi too.

"Guys, looks like our mission just went A-Ranked," Kakashi said before falling to his knees. Naruto, Karin and Sakura rushed to him. "Shit, I used the Sharingan too much. Plus..." they all turn to look at Kakashi's wounds and saw that ice had covered it. "It's spreading too, fuck!"

And Kakashi fainted.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Tazuna's House**

Sasuke was furious! Why he was furious? Well let's recap...

First, he couldn't do anything in first fight against Zabuza and even almost commit suicide when Zabuza released his KI! That was the most embarrassing moment in his life!

Second, when Zabuza had imprisoned Kakashi inside his Water Prison Technique, Zabuza decided to finish Team 7. Zabuza then taunted the Genins and told them of his past. It was horrible, much like the Uchiha massacre but instead of being the victim, Zabuza was the murderer.

Zabuza then proceed to curb stomp Sasuke when Karin rushed in with her clones to help. Of course, it was of no use but was enough to free Sasuke from Zabuza. And then, after a very surprising quick thinking by Karin which involved the Demon Wind Shuriken, they managed to free Kakashi from Zabuza.

Then the battle managed to turn into Kakashi's favour, thanks to his Sharingan, which Sasuke was supposed to have! Had Sasuke had his Sharingan, things would be different!

And then the third reason, another ninja appeared and used ice technique. The ice spikes that was sent by the ninja apparently was extremely powerful, as Kakashi's and Sasuke's combined high level fire technique could only melt the spike a bit!

Fourth, Kakashi, even with the help of the Sharingan couldn't finish Zabuza. It doesn't matter that Kakashi wasn't an Uchiha, but at least stand up to an Uchiha's standard when you're using the Sharingan so as not to sully the Sharingan's name!

And finally, Naruto had faced off against the ice ninja and managed to come back without any injuries.

Sasuke eyed Naruto with venom. Again and again Naruto proved himself to be better than him!

"This is bad Kakashi sensei," Naruto said.

Kakashi nodded in his bed. He was recovering from chakra exhaustion and the wound he got. The ice was freaking painful as it spread and almost caused frost bite. Luckily Karin was there and managed to stop it. Team 7 was now in Tazuna's home with his family; his daughter Tsunami and grandson, Inari.

"True, we have a missing nin and his helper," Kakashi said.

"Is he a missing nin too?" Karin asked and Kakashi shook his head.

"No. There's nobody in the Bingo Book with Ice ability," Kakashi explained. The Bingo Book was the book that held information about wanted persons.

"From the look of it, it seems the Ice Guy is even more powerful than Zabuza," Kakashi said and Naruto nodded.

"I fought with him and he didn't use his ability until I forced him out of the forest," Naruto said.

"This is worrying, if it was Zabuza alone, it wouldn't be a problem. But the Ice Guy just threw everything out of the equation," Kakashi said and rubbed his chin.

"So, what are you guys going to do now?" Tazuna asked. Tazuna saw Zabuza's saw the battle and knew that Zabuza and his helper was something that his whole village could ever hope to match. If the Konoha ninjas back out now, Wave Country is dead! It didn't help that the ninjas had nothing to stop them from backing away.

"We'll help of course," Naruto said and smiled and Tazuna sighed and smiled too. Luckily for Tazuna, Konoha ninja wasn't that heartless. He vowed to make it up to them after this, if they survived of course.

"So, how long until they're combat ready again?" Naruto asked in a grim tone.

"I did put a number on Zabuza. The Ice Guy was uninjured but I'm sure he wouldn't want to make his move when Zabuza was still recovering. So give or take, 3 days," Kakashi said with a serious voice.

"What about you, Sensei?" Sakura asked with worry. Kakashi alone wasn't enough against Zabuza let alone against the combined might of his helper. If Kakashi wasn't ready...

"Karin, how fast can you patch me up?" Kakashi asked.

Karin blushed a little before replying which earned her a confused look from his teammates. "I could do it before the fight, so 3 days too," The truth is, she could have Kakashi ready at this moment but then that would involve...rather intimate moment that she would rather not people know. If things became worst, then yes, she would do it. But right now, normal healing would do.

"Alright then, during these 3 days, I will train you guys to increase your survivability," Kakashi said while eyeing Sasuke and Sakura which caused Sasuke to frown.

Tsunami came in to check up on Kakashi when her son entered the room too.

"You guys are going to die if you go against Gatou," Inari the boy said.

"Inari! Don't say that! They're heroes!" Tsunami said.

"If they lived through this! If not, then they will be just another victim to Gatou's tyranny!" Inari said and ran away.

Everyone was silent at this. "What's his problem?" Karin asked.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

It turns out the training was just tree climbing.

"Why do we have to do this? We already knew how to use jutsus," Sasuke asked.

"Knowing how to use is different from mastering something completely," Kakashi said. Kakashi had to use crutches because his leg couldn't move properly yet. "An example would be this radio," Kakashi pulled out his short range radio. "You know how to use its basic functions but do you know how to use them fully? Do you know how to tweak it to listen to the enemy's channel?"

Sasuke, Sakura and Karin shook their head. "And I bet some of you guys didn't even think of doing what I said before I told you, right?" and the three Genins nodded in embarrassment.

"It's the same like using a tanto. Most people know the basic steps; slash and stab. But they didn't know of the many and more effective moves that you can pull with it. You guys are just using something without fully understand what it is," Kakashi said.

The three Genins nodded. Sasuke and Sakura never did this exercise before but Karin has. Orochimaru drilled this exercise into her before including water walking. But she was just going to play along for a while.

So Kakashi explained the tree walking technique and its motive and had the three of them do it. Of course Sasuke would have something to say about it.

"Why isn't Naruto doing this?" Sasuke asked. Naruto was around training his earth elemental. Earth, being stronger than water, will greatly help against Ice element, as they are a combination of Water and Wind. Naruto originally wanted for all of them at least learn earth from his scroll but seeing that none of them had any earth affinity and their chakra control sucked, it's up to him to do it. Well, all those only applied to Sakura and Sasuke though. After this training, he'll see about Karin.

Naruto sighed, threw his leaf away and walked up to a tree and does a few cartwheels along the tree trunk before jumping down, capturing the same floating leaf, much to Sakura's amazement and Sasuke's chagrin.

Sasuke didn't say anything and proceeded with the training and Sakura followed suit. Karin did it once before going to Naruto when Naruto called her. Sakura's mouth was wide open again and Sasuke was annoyed again. He knew Naruto was strong, but...a girl too? This is too much!

Kakashi sighed. If only these two didn't train by themselves, Kakashi would have been able to done this exercise ages ago! But no...Sasuke choose to train alone and Sakura emulated him. Kakashi thought that he'd give them a few days to mellow out before forcing them to train together but he never thought that this mission would happen.

Well, at least there's hope in Karin. Strange, that someone who had been under Orochimaru's influence was a much better person than one that wasn't influenced at all. He was about to find out about Karin's elemental affinity when Naruto had the same idea and was a step ahead in front of him.

Kakashi smiled. And there's Naruto. So much has change about him and it was for the better too. But it was sad that it took foreigners to do it and not his own people.

Oh well, let's hope Naruto and him would be enough for them to survive.

Naruto gave Karin a chakra paper and it crumbles to dust! Naruto hugged her and jumped high into the air and spun around causing said girl to scream. Finally! Another ally in the fight!

But still another thought dawned on him, he couldn't use Karin for the front line as she is also the medic. With her out the probability of survival would be zero as she's the only one able to cure them from Ice Guy's dangerous frost bite.

Oh well, at least he could stop worrying about Tazuna when he fought with the Ice Guy again.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

The training didn't go well for Sasuke as even Sakura was able to grasp the tree walking exercise quickly than him. Sakura tried to impress Sasuke with her achievement but she found out that it was the wrong thing to do as Sasuke gave a glare that could kill. So Sakura left Sasuke alone.

Kakashi then thought Sakura the water walking next as Water Country has a lot of...you know, water. It took Sakura a longer time to master it but it was understandable. He's not going to teach Sakura elemental affinities yet until she mastered chakra control well. Some elements are too dangerous to be learnt without proper control such as wind. Some Genin had their career ended when their sharp wind chakra sliced clean their fingers off.

It was until day the night of day two that Kakashi told his Genins to take a break for the tomorrow's fight and that night, they were having their dinner when Inari burst.

"Why are you guys trying so hard? Inari said with tears in his eye. "No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to stand against Gato's men! When facing the strong, the weak always lose and die!"

"And what's your problem? Can't you at least respect us for our effort we put in for you and your country?" Naruto said. They heard about the kid's past, how he was a coward before his second father, Kaiza met him. Kaiza was a hero after he prevented a dam from bursting and made Inari braver.

Of course, Gato came and killed Kaiza, crushing Inari's bravery, confidence and belief in heroes again.

"That's because you've never had a hard life and you think that you could win this with sappy heroic feelings and stuff! You think that with enough optimism, you'd win like in those stupid kid tales about heroes! What the hell do you know about my life? About what I've been through?" Inari screamed. Tsunami was about to scold her son for his behaviour when Naruto released a tremendous KI.

Everyone was silent as they watched Naruto who sat across Inari; his eyes turn red with slits. "I dare you say again. That we know nothing of suffering," Naruto said in a calm voice.

Inari was scared, the blonde carefree kid suddenly turned murderous. But he decided to stand by what he said. "You know nothing!"

In a flash, Naruto was across the table and had pinned Inari by the wall. His right hand was clamping Inari's cheek, making his mouth resemble that of a fish while his left arm was holding Inari's shirt.

"You fucking shit! You think that you've lost your father, lived under a tyrant for a year and you think that your suffering tops everyone's? Huh?" Naruto screamed. Tsunami wanted to save her son but Tazuna stopped her.

"Well, news flash! Sasuke" Naruto used his right hand to direct Inari's face towards Sasuke. "-the last Uchiha! He witnessed the massacre of his clan right in front of him!"

Tsunami gasped at this, while Tazuna, Sakura and Karin looked horrified. Sasuke looked away.

"Hatake Kakashi!" Naruto directed Inari's face at Kakashi next. "World class assassin, participated in the previous war, lost all his precious people and all of it at your age!"

Tsunami didn't make a sound but had the same horrified look as his father.

"Karin Kouzuki!" Inari's face was pointed at Karin now. "Lost her parents from the previous war, the sole survivor of her village and a major bad guy wanted to use her for nefarious purposes!"

"Your mother!" Inari was facing his mother. "She lost two great men in her life! And it would be likely that she would never fine another!"

"Your grandfather!" Inari faced his grandfather. "He also lost two great sons! He tried to honor their memory and make life better for everyone but people, especially you, ridiculed his effort!"

"And me," Inari was face to face with Naruto. "No one wanted me in my hometown, for things that I didn't do and have no control of! People never see me as myself but as a demon! For six years I grew hated and prejudiced! Stores would sell me trash for ridiculous prices! I had neither family nor friends for the six years of my life!"

"And you dare say none of us understand about suffering? About pain? It looks like you're the one who didn't understand a single thing!" Naruto said through gritted teeth. "You should understand one thing about the world. That there's always someone one level above or below you. You think you're the strongest? Think again. You think you had it worst? Think again,"

"At least you have an able body. Some didn't even have legs! At least you still have your family! Some didn't have that luxury!" Naruto said. "To say that your suffering is greater is an insult to those that have suffered!"

"You should think of others first before you say something you don't know about," Naruto released Inari to the floor and Inari cried harder. "Just because you're suffering doesn't give you the right to do what's wrong. It doesn't give you the right to make others suffer, to destroy people's effort to move on over their suffering. And that's what you're doing right now,"

Naruto crouched down and clamped Inari's cheek with his right hand again and glared him. "You're grandfather is living to your father's memory. And as far as I know, your father was a brave man. But you? His son? A coward! An insult to him! You're not worthy of his memory, his name! You're not his legacy!"

Naruto released Inari and stormed outside of the house, leaving the wrecked Inari and the silent residents.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Naruto was back in the forest, listening to the sound of the crickets chirping. He was, as usual, on top of a tree, practicing his earth manipulation. And then, he heard sounds and he saw someone coming towards him.

'Why people kept coming to me when I'm on trees?' Naruto mused before he silently observed the person.

It was a beautiful girl, or is it a boy? He or she had the features of a girl but lacked, ahem, assets. He/she was collecting some herbs though. He/she then stopped for a while to rest and looked up and saw Naruto.

They stared at each other and Naruto jumped down before he/she could freaked out.

"Collecting herbs in the night?" Naruto said. "Naruto by the way," Naruto extended his arm and he/she grab it.

"Yes, I couldn't afford to buy medicine. And I'm Haku. Also before anything, I'm a boy," Haku said and Naruto immediately was taken back. "I know, I couldn't help it that I'm pretty,"

"But your clothing!" Naruto stammered.

"The only clothing I had and it was from my mother's," Haku said and Naruto decided not to press any further and sat down.

"So, life was rough, I take it?" Naruto asked and Haku nodded. "But it wasn't so bad; I got someone to take me in,"

"I see..."

"So you're a ninja?" Haku asked.

"Yeah,"

"But, you certainly didn't look like it," Haku tilted his head.

"Then I'm doing a good job," Naruto smirked and Haku smiled.

'Yes, I agree,' Haku thought.

"I heard that being a ninja is quite...bad. Is it true?" Haku asked.

Naruto sighed. Thinking back of his life and what he said to Inari. "Yeah, you're not sure when you're going to die, have nightmares, social problems and being used like a tool by the leaders and etc etc,"

"So then why? Why be a tool?"

Naruto looked at Haku, thinking that he was just another civilian that thought ninjas were just nothing but murderers, but Naruto was wrong and instead he realised that as if Haku was trying to find an answer to something.

"Because I want to be strong to be able to make a difference in life, you know. To protect the people I care. And about being a tool, they said that a tool is only as good as its user, so it's the matter of finding the right person to use you...I guess. That sounded weird," Naruto answered and scratched the back of his head.

Haku chuckled lightly. "Strange, you and I are quite similar,"

"Really?" Naruto raised an eyebrow and Haku nodded.

"I also wish to become strong and stronger for the person I want to protect. For my...user, so to speak," Haku said with a smile. Strange...why did he use the same word as Naruto did? It sounded like he's a servant or...

Now Naruto felt that something was odd with this boy and he put together one and two. The bangs and the long hair, if put in a bun...and that voice!

In a flash Haku jabbed at Naruto's throat using his finger's joints (I don't know how to say this...it's like punching but instead of using your knuckles, you use the finger joints. I hope you guys get it), causing Naruto to gag.

Haku then took out a cloth from his basket and smothered it over Naruto's mouth, his gagging just now caused him to unable to hold his breath and he breathed in the chemical that was on the cloth. Soon darkness took over him.

"You're definitely strong. But in war or a battle; it isn't about who is right, but who is left. I'm not going to apologize as you should have known this," Haku said while standing over Naruto's unconscious body.

"And I'm not sorry for what I'm going to do either," Haku said in a calm voice while eyeing Naruto.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

The next day, Tazuna was ready to build again but Team 7 wasn't ready.

"Where is Naruto? We can't go out like this!" Karin said.

"Last night he didn't return...dammit!" Kakashi cursed. "Tazuna-san, looks like we can't go out today,"

"No! I'm about to finish the bridge! And then Gatou's reign will be over!" Tazuna said.

"It won't. He could have just charge people on using your bridge. So it won't change much, aside from making him richer," Kakashi said with a sad voice. He didn't want to tell the truth. At least he wanted to wait until Zabuza was dealt with, and ask Tazuna to apply for an S-Ranked mission.

"What?" Tazuna said. He didn't thought of it before.

"The root of the problem is Gatou. So to solve this, we either had to make Gatou leave or...kill him," Kakashi said and Tazuna dropped to his knees. S-Ranked? There's no way in all of Elemental Country could he afford it! Tazuna started to tear up, his efforts, all for nothing! Inari was right!

But Naruto was even more right. He still had his family! And if he didn't go the bridge, Zabuza will come to his family for him.

Team 7 looked at Tazuna with sympathy, but to their surprise, Inari got back up. "Zabuza's going to come here if I don't go. So, if he wants a dead super bridge builder, he won't get it so easily!" Kakashi, Sakura and Karin smiled.

"Alright then," Kakashi nodded. "Let's hope that Naruto will come to help us in time,"

* * *

**Author's Note Again: **And there you go! Haha, Haku looked like she wanted to rape Naruto! Anyway, hope you guys like at the demonstration of what Haku could do.

And...I have nothing else to say...

Jutsu used:

**Wind Technique: Projectile Capture – **Creates a tiny sphere on a user's palm that is able to intercept and capture normal projectiles like shurikens, kunais and senbons. Elemental charged projectiles isn't recommended unless it was lightning infused.

**Wind Technique: Wind Enhanced Tools – **Technique used by Danzo. Imbues weapons with elemental chakra to increase their offensive potential such as blowing wind chakra to kunais to turn them into wind scimitars and such.

**Ice Techinque: Ice Shield – **Creates an ice shield with varying properties. Shape, and size can be change due to ice's versatile nature. Haku preferred an oni mask however.

**Ice Technique: Spread – **Haku is able to increase any ice jutsu in effect with this technique, increasing their size.

**Ice Technique: Frost Diver – **Ragnarok Online's Magician's skill. Haku creates Ice Spikes from the ground that spears everything on its path.


	8. Chapter 7: True Demon

**Author's Note: **Right, a lot of people was confused by how I address Haku; whether or not Haku's a he or she. The answer is she. It's just that Haku managed to fool everyone, except Zabuza in the story so well that they thought Haku is a he. It might get confusing in the story but that's because the characters didn't know of Haku's true gender.

Put it this way, in A/N, I'm able to indulge anything including fourth wall breaking stuff and talk to you guys. In the story, my narration is quite limited to the character's perspective. So unless Haku herself reveals her gender, the story will address Haku as he. But don't worry, it won't last long.

And some people actually thought that Naruto was going to get raped. And I was like...wha? What does she actually get from doing that? Aside from babies, but no...Haku at this point wasn't interested in making babies...yet.

And to answer a few questions:

Lednacek: Although they can walk on fours, they preferred bi-pedal, so the cats all walk on two legs.

Junky: Not everyone will get zanpakutos and yes, it's Nekogakure's forbidden technique.

* * *

**CHAPTER 7: WAVE COUNTRY! PART 2: TRUE DEMON**

**Forest somewhere in Wave**

Zabuza and Haku were miles away from Team 7 after their first fight and they decided to stop and rest to attend to Zabuza's wounds.

"Damn, fucking Sharingan," Zabuza said and sat down while leaning against a tree. Haku kneeled and took out his medikit to patch Zabuza.

"And you, what happened? How did the blonde brat managed to find out about you?" Zabuza said while taking out a kunai. Blood started to flow freely now that the kunai that was acting as its plug was removed.

"It looks like the team had more capable members than we thought," Haku said while working on the bleeding wound. "I didn't know much about the rest but it seems that the blonde kid is someone to watch out for. If the rest were on his level, we might have to reconsider the mission,"

Zabuza 'tched'.

"Still, he told me that Yagura the Fourth Mizukage was dead for over a year now," Haku said and Zabuza's eyes immediately went wide.

"Shit, he's finally dead, huh? Never thought that anyone could pull it off," Zabuza said while thinking his next action.

The reason why Zabuza was a missing ninja in the first place was because of the Host of the Three Tailed Beast, who is also Fourth Mizukage; Yagura. Yagura, though he was young when he became Mizukage, there was something wrong with him. Most of Kiri's bloodied history was because of him.

The Genin Massacre, the Bloodline Purge, the Civil War. It's all thanks to him.

Zabuza tried to assassinate him but to no avail. With the failed assassination, Zabuza either has to be executed as a traitorous Kiri ninja or live as a traitorous missing ninja. He chose the latter of course.

Ever since then, Zabuza had been gathering his strength and resources so that he could attempt another coup against that homicidal maniac kid. And now...all of it has been for nothing.

Still...

"Did he say anything about the new Mizukage?" Zabuza asked and Haku shook his head.

"So what are we going to do now?"

"I'm not sure that the Kiri I left behind is the same as it is now. Regardless, whoever is the new Mizukage now isn't going to just pardon me easily, especially a Kage assassin. They won't be able to sit tight if I'm hanging around in the village," Zabuza stated and Haku nodded.

"So, finish the mission first then?" Haku ask and Zabuza nodded.

"How fast?" Zabuza asked nonchalantly.

"That Kakashi did a number on you, plus you're suffering from chakra exhaustion. So three days," Haku stated.

"Any chance of you assassinating one of them? Or even the target?" Zabuza asked.

"There is, but you have priority," Haku smiled and Zabuza sighed.

"What'd I do without you," Zabuza said.

"You'll die of course. Simple as that,"

"Cheeky brat!"

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

For two days, Haku took care of Zabuza, bringing him up back to his prime. Until Haku was sure that Zabuza was well enough to survive on his own until the next day, was Haku ready to try and assassinate one of Team 7.

Haku then changed his clothing, from his usual hunter ninja attire with mask and headband to his casual...girl clothing.

The truth is...Haku was a girl, but disguised as a boy. Why? The answer is simple, deception and protection (from this point, Haku will be referred as a girl).

Protection because a lot of power would want to get her to revive the Yuki Clan. If the world knows that Haku's a girl...well, why do you think that Kumo ninja tried to kidnap Hyuuga Hinata?

It was because girls are a much simpler target after all. Simpler to subdue and simpler to be used. Power hungry people would chase after her to turn her into a brood mother for their own Ice user army.

If the world thought that Haku was a boy, they would think twice in trying to do anything to Haku. Heck, she even might enjoy the Clan Protection, Resurrection Act (CRA) and some higher ups would offer their daughters to Haku. Hah! The look on their faces if they knew the truth!

Deception because Haku could use her status for various situations. Assassinate a guy? Just use her gender to approach and kill the bastard before he could do anything. Assassinate a woman? Pose in as a bishonen and kill the poor lady. After all, some women tend to like bishonen guys. And sometimes he didn't even need to use her real gender against guys as some of them...preferred young handsome boys.

Somewhere in Sound Village, Orochimaru sneezed when he was dissecting his experiment, causing a lot of contagion to defile the experiment. "Fuck! Who the hell is badmouthing me?" Orochimaru cursed. Normally a lot of people does that but this must be a strong one!

Anyway, sometimes, Haku loved the reaction on people's face when she told boys her gender, especially when Haku said that she's a boy. They would go like "Wha?" and then they would back off, feeling guilty for liking a boy.

And some turned gay on the spot because of her.

And then Haku would reveal the truth that she was indeed, a girl all along.

Then they would have really mixed feelings. And that would be priceless!

And of course, this wasn't limited to boys, mind you. Girls would confess to her too. Toying with girl's heart was harder to do, as she was also a girl.

Anyway, Zabuza himself told her to hide her true gender. Believe it or not, in spite of his nickname, Zabuza was actually a nice person.

Not once did he use Haku for his sexual needs. If anything, Zabuza hated undercover missions that would involve sexual acts and would order Haku to kill the target slowly and painfully.

Zabuza Momochi was like a father to her. Probably an even better one than her biological father. At least Zabuza didn't try to kill her, or her mother.

Yes, some of you would say that Zabuza used her as a murder tool. But at least he gave Haku the ability to defend herself in this unforgiving and cruel world. At least Zabuza didn't turn her into a brood mother.

Someone much worst could have picked her up instead of Zabuza.

And for all that Zabuza had done for her; Haku was grateful and would willingly die for him as her life belongs to him anyway.

After her 'disguise' was complete, Haku took her basket and set out to Tazuna's house, ready to make her move.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Trying to kill either one of them was hard. Tazuna always had the blonde kid and the red headed girl protecting him while the Copy Ninja was always with rest of him team, training them. She didn't want to attack Tazuna in broad daylight as well in the company of his bodyguards. The blonde was strong, sure but the red headed? She wasn't sure.

So Haku secretly observed the blonde and the red head, waiting for at least one of them to break away from each other so that Haku could atleast take one down. But they stuck together like glue!

So she couldn't strike during the day. No matter, there's always the night.

The second night would be the time when the team will not do any training to rest properly for tomorrow's big fight. Haku counted on that; when all of them are sleeping, she could strike.

But her chance came much earlier. It seemed that a fight occurred in the house as she could hear the blonde talking angrily and the sound of a little kid crying. The blonde then stormed from the house and into the woods.

Perfect.

Haku then entered the wood with her basket in hand. In the basket contained two bottles. One has a powerful sleeping chemical and a cloth that was already doused with said chemical. The other one is for killing of course. She just need to play the lamb before revealing the wolf beneath.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

The blonde kid turned out to be rather interesting. He was more matured than most Konoha Genin that Haku usually meets.

Konoha, having experienced an age of peace had somewhat reduced their ninja's skills, especially the younger ones. Haku, by the age of six had already gone through much hardship and it has hardened her. Most Konoha Genins at age six was still playing jumping ropes and other kid games.

The Genins from civilian families are the worst. They think that ninjas are a 'cool' profession and only wanted to become one because of the benefits entitled to it. They didn't have strong reasons on why they wanted to become a ninja.

Most casualties are Genins from civilian families after all.

Anyway, the kid knows the meaning of becoming a ninja, a tool. However, he also had people that he wanted to protect, and that was always a good sign of a good ninja. It saddens Haku that she had to remove him from the equation.

But it was unavoidable. War and fights in the ninja world happen because of one side thinking that their priority is greater, that they are right and the opposing force have to obey to it.

Haku won't say that Zabuza's goals were right, nor say that Haku was innocent and has the right to kill. No, she already accepted that her hand was tainted a long time ago.

"You're definitely strong. But in war or a battle; it isn't about who is right, but who is left. I'm not going to apologize as you should have known this," Haku said while standing over Naruto's unconscious body.

After all, history is written by the winner. The one left standing is the one that would decide what is right and wrong, because there is no one to tell them otherwise.

"And I'm not sorry for what I'm going to do either," Haku said in a calm voice while eyeing Naruto. Haku then took out the bottle that contained the poison and uncapped it. Haku then opened Naruto's mouth and pour one tenth of the bottle's content into Naruto.

Haku then dragged Naruto's body deeper into the woods and hides his body in a bush. Should Haku and Zabuza achieve their objective of killing Tazuna, and if the Konoha ninja's would stop, Haku would tell them the location of Naruto's body for proper burial.

Haku looked at Naruto's face one last time. His face paled, foam was forming in his mouth and purple veins appeared on his face and arm. Signs that the poison is doing its job.

Haku then left Naruto's body and went back to Zabuza. Having killed one is enough. She could use it to demoralize the rest of his team or even better, sent them to uncontrollable rage that could cloud their judgement. Besides, she also needed a good rest for tomorrow.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Mindscape**

_Drip..._

_Drip..._

Naruto slowly opened his eyes at the sound of water slowly dripping to his face. "Wha?" Naruto groggily sat upright and realised that he was wet.

Naruto groaned and looked around. It looked like he was in a sewer. A large sewer. "Where the hell am I? Damn, that Ice Guy must have dumped me somewhere...strange, why didn't he just kill me?"

"_**That's because he almost did kill you, idiot!"**_a voice said from one end of the sewer. Naruto turned to look at the source of the voice. The voice seemed to come from at the other end of the sewer, which has large bars, as if it was a prison. It's as if this place wasn't a sewer, but rather a corridor to a prison.

At the middle of the prison bar was a seal with the kanji word 'Seal' on it and Naruto could make a visage from behind the bar. The sewer's lack of lighting didn't help much.

Naruto then walked to the prison bar and saw two pairs of red light; one pair was huge! The other pair was smaller and was the size of a human's...eye.

The red lights are actually eyes! The smaller pair was on top of the big though, as if...the owner of the human eye was riding the owner of the larger one.

"Okay...who are you? Where am I?" Naruto asked.

"_**Silly me, you're me, of course!"**_the voice said and the darkness that covered the prison was cleared and Naruto could finally see the owner of the eyes.

The owner of the large eyes was none other than the Kyuubi No Yoko itself and it was in a bad condition. Its body was suspended in mid-air by chains that were wrapped all over its body and what's worse was that it wasn't normal chains, but thorn chains.

The Kyuubi's body had numerous laceration wounds, deep cuts and gashes all over its body and there's more. Numerous large demonic looking swords were embedded in the Kyuubi's body; in its hands, feet, tails, spine and its mouth, effectively clamping the mouth shut. The swords have numerous eyes and mouths all over its body and each eye has numerous pupils inside it; all of it was moving around frantically, reacting badly to the disappeared darkness. The swords also have the thorn chain from the bottom of its hilt, and the chains, including the ones that were wrapped around the Kyuubi seemed to originate from the prison walls itself.

Naruto tried to find the source of the thorn chains when he saw that the chains wasn't hooked to the walls but instead was wound up on pulleys. Naruto traced the chains back and found himself staring at the human red eyes.

The owner of the human red eyes was sitting on top of Kyuubi's head like it was a throne. The 'human' resembled Naruto himself except that he was covered in dark liquid like aura, making him looked like a shadow.

Naruto then realised something; the shadow has numerous thorn chains sprouting from its back and that the shadow was the source of the chains!

"_**Hello me!"**_the shadow smirked, his voice sounded like a growl, as if his voicebox was badly damaged. _**"Dude, you suck! You let that effeminate boy get the drop on you! And now look what happened!"**_

Naruto's face scowled at the horrible sight. Sure, the Kyuubi was a demon but this was too much. "What the fuck happened here? Did the seal do this to the Kyuubi?"

The shadow laughed hard, with every movement caused the chains to move a little and in turn, moving the other chains around Kyuubi. Kyuubi growled a little but the shadow's laughter was louder.

"_**Name's Yami by the way, and no, the seal didn't do this, we did! Or rather, I did!"**_Yami grinned.

"Wha? Why?" Naruto was horrified. If Yami is who he claims himself to be, than what happened to Kyuubi was his doing too.

"_**He's serving his time of course! Just sitting here isn't punishment enough! And I'm doing my part as the jailer, the warden,"**_Yami said with glee.

"What the fuck? This is downright torture! He didn't deserve this!" Naruto said with venom.

Yami shook his head. _**"Had it been any other person, like a Konoha resident for an example, they would have cheered. But with you it's understandable. You're able to think and feel that way because we're separated. Human rights don't apply to demons, my dear self. And yes, he deserved this more than anything," **_

Naruto was confused now. 'Separated?' he thought. "It wasn't his choice to attack Konoho! He was-"

"_**Controlled? Yes, yes, that's true. I watched the fox's memories like a movie after all. Quite interesting to watch something from other's perspective. Anyway, that was the first part, the start of the story and the truth. Did you know what happened on the other part?" **_Yami smirked, taking in the delight of knowing something that others don't, especially his other self.

"_**He could have just walk away to his freedom. I'm sure that Konoha wouldn't mind as they were recovering from the attack. But nooooo, he chose revenge! Like a fucking Uchiha! That action alone causes the death of our parents!" **_Yami said with venom and put his left hand back and twist it around a thorn chain before grabbing it. He then yanked down, hard, causing the large demonic blade that was embedded in Kyuubi's left hand to be pulled upwards. Kyuubi's hand couldn't move as the chains wrapped around it hold it tightly in place but the movement caused deeper cuts into his arm.

Naruto winced as the Kyuubi let out a small muffled roar, no doubt having no strength to let out a big one. Naruto had the feeling that this had been going on for a long time.

"_**And that's not all. He was also responsible for my birth. In fact, he created me! He hoped that we, together would go nuts and release him to exact revenge on Konoha!" **_ Yami said and Naruto looked into Kyuubi's eyes.

He couldn't see any malice in it...just suffering, and sadness. He couldn't believe that the Kyuubi really did do those things.

"_**Oh yes! Look at into his eyes, his soul! You would think that it is the eye of an innocent, don't you? That's because I'm doing a fucking good job in reforming him! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" **_Yami laughed hard.

"_**The thing is...his plan would have worked. Had it not for certain people that showed us kindness in the last moment. Or the breaking point; you going to Nekogakure for training! Had you not tried to get your Zanpakuto, we wouldn't have been separated and-" **_Yami yanked the chain harder, causing Kyuubi to roar in pain.

"_**he wouldn't be like this. It's kinda like karma. Or retribution if you want to use strong words," **_Yami said with a grin.

Naruto's eyes widened. "It's you! You're the reason why I didn't have a zanpakuto!" Naruto said and pointed to him.

Yami raised his head while looking at Naruto, looking down on him. _**"I am your zanpakuto. I am your power,"**_

Naruto was horrified to learn that his power could be so dark.

"_**Don't blame yourself. Or me for that matter. We are like this because of the choices made and imposed to us by the people who could only think of themselves. We are the product from the adult's fucked up choices," **_Yami said with an angry look. _**"They say that a person's personality is decided by the nature in which they grow, and the nurture given to them. So really, this isn't our fault to begin with!"**_

Naruto looked away. It was the truth. Although he had a good second six years of his life, his first six years was...horrible. Had things been different...had the people see what he really is...

Yami looked at Naruto with a neutral face. _**"So now here comes the part about us. Truthfully, you aren't really Naruto as I'm not really Yami," **_Yami said and Naruto turn to look at him with a confused look.

"_**We are incomplete beings. Two different pieces of the same whole. Much like the Kyuubi. One day, we will be whole again," **_Yami said and Naruto was about to ask what he meant about the Kyuubi when Yami raised his left hand to silence Naruto. _**"When that time comes and I proved to be stronger than you, the real us...will be a monster. Like the one in front of you," **_Yami emphasized this by spreading his arms wide.

"So you mean that I have to defeat you?" Naruto asked.

"_**In a way yes. Defeat or stand on equal grounds with me. The thing is Naruto, you can't defeat me with power, skill or physical strength. No. That's because I am your power! You getting stronger physically or hurt either physically or emotionally, will only feed me, and make me grow stronger," **_Yami explained.

"What the hell? What am I supposed to do then?" Naruto was flabbergasted. It means that almost everything that he does will contribute to Yami's strength.

"_**I'm not going to answer that. 'Cuz the answer's cheesy," **_Yami smirked and Naruto frowned at him.

Naruto thought about it for the moment. If Yami gets stronger with Naruto's increase in physical strength and emotional pain, then to defeat him he has to use the opposite. Which means...

"_**You are lucky that some shred of good is still in me that I could still think rationally and not given to mindless negativity. If not, I would not be telling you this," **_Yami said.

They both stared at each other and Naruto understood that somehow, Yami can still be saved, no, he wanted to be saved.

"_**I will tell you this, there will be a time when you cannot use Kyuubi's power and will have to use mine. Don't. Let. That. Happen," **_Yami said with a grave voice and Naruto nodded.

"_**Good, then let's hope that we won't be meeting again soon," **_Yami said and the darkness consumed the whole of the Mindscape.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Naruto woke up to the most unpleasant wake up ever! His mind was spinning, his body wrecked with intense pain, bright blinding light is threatening to burn his eyes out and some liquid was blocking his windpipe.

Immediately he sat up and vomited the liquid, which was a mixture of his dinner, blood, foam and some dark liquid.

If this is how hangover's going to be, then he swore he's not going to get drunk.

Naruto then got up to his feet with difficulty and collected himself. Looking around and using his time judging skills, he realised that he was late in accompanying Tazuna.

"Shit! I hope that Zabuza hasn't attacked yet! If they did..." Naruto said and instantly Body Flickered away.

He needs to get there fast! But then he realised something was odd in the forest...

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Tsunami was just doing her daily chores when the door to her house was sliced to pieces.

Some people just don't know how to use doors. One Yakuza looking and one clown looking samurai entered the house.

"Excuse me? Haven't you used a door before? Or was it too complicated for you? Guess you knowing nothing without your blade, huh?" Tsunami said and put her hands on her hips.

The two samurai's twitched. This isn't what they had expected. Tsunami knew that it would be bad to badmouth her potential killers but she's going to get a few kicks before she goes down.

Yakuza then in a flash drew out his sword and point the tip to Tsunami's mouth. "Got quite a mouth there bitch, wanna lose it? 'Cuz I can help,"

"Don't damage her. Boss wants her intact," Clown said.

Tsunami perked up at hearing this. "What for?"

Both samurai's grinned lecherously. "Not to be a hostage that's for sure," Yakuza licked his lips and pointed his sword lower to her chest.

Tsunami paled at hearing this.

"That's right. Why do we need hostages when your dad's gonna die anyway? If not by Zakuza's hands, by the other killers we prepared," Clown said.

"Think that we can get some fun from her? I'm sure boss wouldn't mind. I mean, not like she hasn't been touched before," Yakuza smiled and moved forward while Tsunami backed herself.

"You shit heads!" Inari jumped from his hiding place to tackle Yakuza but the differences were too big and Yakuza slashed at Inari.

"No!" Tsunami screamed but to their surprise, Inari was replaced by a log that has a tear gas bomb stuck to it.

The smoke bomb went off and consumed the house with tear gas. Inari and Tsunami found themselves out of the house and was carried by Naruto in his hands.

"You okay? Sorry you have to deal with those creeps," Naruto said and dropped them. He then looked at Inari who was shaking and pat his head. "Good job kid. Looks like you got your guts back huh?"

Inari stopped shaking and smiled. "Yeah! I'm Kaiza's son after all!" Naruto returned the smile and faced the house back.

The two samurais appeared from the smoke, coughing up a storm. "Looks like there's a good point in me being late after all. Luckily they decided to show off their swordsmanship on helpless objects and animals," Naruto said.

"Seems like you guys are used to the idea of raping women, don't you?" Naruto said with a grim tone.

The samurais managed to collect themselves again and drew out their swords. "Yeah, done it a few times. A sure fine way to break your kunoichis. Heh. And we're not going to stop either. 'Cuz nobody, including you is gonna stop us!" Yakuza said.

Naruto didn't say anything but bit his lips until they bleed. "Looks like we hit a nerve," Clown smirked.

Naruto nonchalantly wiped away the blood with his left thumb and casted his technique. "Summoning Technique!"

In a puff of smoke, Soi Fon appeared in front of Naruto. Everyone except Naruto and Soi Fon was shocked at seeing the large cat in front of them. "In a fix?" Soi Fon asked.

"No, just want you to handle these two scumbags," Naruto said with venom and Soi Fon understood that the two people in front of them wasn't to be killed easily, but painfully and slowly.

"How much of a scumbag?" Soi Fon asked in a business like tone.

"Rapists," Naruto simply said and Soi Fon narrowed her eyes while releasing a massive KI that caused the two men to shiver a bit.

"I see," Soi Fon said and slowly drew out her short sword, Tsuzumebachi. "Well then, scumbags, let's play, shall we?" Soi Fon said and in an instant she was gone.

Tsunami and Inari blinked once and both samurai's were gone too in a scream.

Naruto then turned to look back at them. "It's not safe here. Even more might come. Go and round up the people and stay with them. If we fall, Gato will come. Decide then among your people on what to do," Naruto said and smiled at Inari before turning back.

"Wait, brother!" Inari said and Naruto turned face him. "Sorry...about yesterday," Inari said with apologetic eyes and Naruto flashed his large grin.

"Well, as long as you learn something from it, then it's okay. If you learn something from your mistake, then it is a mistake worth made," Naruto patted Inari's head once again and disappeared.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Things weren't going so good. Kakashi was in a fix. He wanted to fight against Haku but Zabuza kept him busy. It didn't help that Zabuza knew of the Sharingan's weakness and executed the Hidden Mist Technique. Immediately, chakra laced mist covered the whole area, making him unable to properly see Zabuza's chakra signatures.

Haku was fighting Sasuke while Karin and Sakura were protecting Tazuna. Luckily, Haku didn't use his (this is Kakashi's perspective) ice ability yet and was gauging Sasuke's strength.

"You're...weaker than Naruto," Haku said, dancing around Sasuke's attacks.

"Naruto? What did you to him?" Karin asked while readying herself to execute an earth technique in case Haku comes to them.

"I killed him, with poison," Haku said nonchalantly, as if it was the normal thing to do. Immediately Karin and Sakura dropped to their knees.

'Naruto, dead? No! It's over! Sasuke's going to get killed and then...' Sakura thought.

'Naruto...no! How can you simply die like that?' Karin thought.

Sasuke was fuming, but not because of Naruto's death, but because of Haku labelling him weak. Sasuke focused his chakra on to his leg and kicked Haku's face. Haku however simply placed a kunai in the kick's path and Sasuke's own speed does the job of piercing the kunai to his leg.

"Argh!" Sasuke writhed in pain and pulled back his leg.

"Enough games. From the reaction of your teammates, I could say that the pink head is the weakest of your team. The red head might provide a challenge but I can see that fighting isn't her forte," Haku deducted.

It was true. When the fight begins, the pink head and red head didn't help the boy at all. That would either mean that they are medics, couldn't help in the fight or was solely assigned to protect Tazuna. However, from the pink head's lack of stance and shivering; it looks like she was more of a liability. The red head clearly had combat potential but seeing her stance was still lacking, she's more to a medic.

"I will now kill Tazuna. What you do after that is up to you. I just hope that you will be wise about it," Haku said and disappeared.

In an instant, Haku appeared in front of Tazuna and with a kunai in hand, thrust her hand forward straight in between Tazuna's eyes.

In an instant, Naruto appeared in front of Tazuna and stopped the kunai in its track using his own kunai's ring. "Your disguise was something, Haku-san," Naruto said.

Karin and Sakura's head went up at Naruto's arrival. "Naruto!" both girls chorused.

"Get. Up!" Naruto said through gritted teeth. "Mourning is for after a battle, after you survive it! Lest you join the dead and have people mourn you instead!" both girls quickly got up to their feet.

Haku's eyes went wide and she immediately jumped away. "You! How the hell?"

"Sorry, I have super resistance to poison," Naruto smirked.

"Bullshit! I gave you more than lethal dosage! I watched you die!" Haku growled. She didn't like a dead man walking. That says a lot about a botched job and it didn't help that they tend to be vengeful. "I should have cut your head!"

"That and cut out my heart. That's the sure way to deal with pesky immortals, especially a dead man walking," Naruto smirked does a handseal and a puff of smoke later, was clothed in his ANBU gear.

Haku growled at this. "I'll take your advice then. Both,"

Naruto smirked. "Karin, do what I told you,"

Karin nodded and flashed her handseals. "Earth Technique: Earth Dome!" Karin then spew out mud in a circle around herself, Sakura and Tazuna and a dome emerged from it and encase them in a protective earth shell.

"I see...from the looks of it, you're the only threat," Haku said and turns to look at Sasuke. "I couldn't afford any possible distraction so I have to weed out the weak first. Ice Technique: Ice Floor!"

Haku flashed her handseal using only one hand and Naruto nodded. 'Shit, no wonder he's so strong!'

The bridge's floor immediately was covered in ice and Sasuke slipped a bit before regaining his footing. "Chakra on legs, now!" Naruto ordered and Haku skated forward towards Sasuke.

Sasuke jumped upwards and casted his Grand Fireball at Haku which consumed the ice covered floor but Haku has already jumped on the railing and threw six ice senbons at Sasuke. Sasuke slashed the ice senbons away while falling to the ground again, his fire didn't make much difference to the ice covered floor.

Naruto got down to his hand and raised his feet in the air and started to kick furiously, sending waves after waves of Storm Legs at Haku. Haku immediately casted her Ice Shield and wear it on her left hand to weather the attacks and charged at the attacking Naruto. The shields this time, has numerous ice spikes.

Sasuke landed and casted another smaller Fireball this time, not wanting to hit Naruto. Haku saw the incoming ball of flame and used her free hand to cast another Ice Shield to defend against it. Unbeknownst to her however is that Sasuke immediately throw an exploding kunai. The fireball hit the shield and has no effect as usual but the kunai stuck to it.

Haku realised that the kunai stuck though.

Naruto pushed his hands hard against the bridge floor to jump away from the charging spiky ice shield, and Haku throw the shield that has the exploding kunai at Naruto. Naruto's eyes widened as the exploding kunai and shield exploded in front of him.

Sasuke was horrified. His attack was used against him and had caused the death of his teammate! Haku slowly turns her face towards Sasuke. "Well, I didn't expect for him to fall first, but thanks,"

Sasuke growled and charged at Haku. Haku skated forward with such speed that it caught Sasuke by surprise and slashed horizontally at Sasuke using the shield; its edges were sharp enough to function as a sword. Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw this and saw no other way to dodge.

Until the world seem to slow down for him and enable him to see clearly what he needs to do. He then slid down on the floor using a sheet of chakra to propel him forward and Haku's slash missed him. Haku was surprised as she saw Sasuke slide beneath her shield and threw a kunai directly at her face.

Unfortunately, Haku had her mask and she positioned her face so that the kunai would hit her forehead where her forehead protector was in place. The mask shattered and hit the forehead protector and bounced harmlessly. Haku then used her free hand and lunged at Sasuke's neck, effectively stopping his slide and pinning him down.

"Sharingan, huh? Doesn't matter, it's useless in Zabuza's chakra laced mist and you certainly can't copy bloodline ability," Haku smiled. "And I got you anyway,"

Haku's grip tightened and Sasuke feel his life fading away. Sasuke tried to resist by taking out another kunai but Haku kneed him in the gut, stopping his move.

Suddenly, Haku realised something and bring her shield to her back as a large meat cleaver clashed against it.

"Getsuga!" a voice said and a blue explosion consumed the shield and destroyed it and sent Haku flying backwards from the explosion and releasing Sasuke in the progress. Haku skidded a few times before standing back again.

The explosion cleared and Haku could see Naruto and a large orange cat wearing an ANBU uniform with mask and he was holding the giant sword. Haku tilted her head a bit. She never saw a cat summon before.

"A summon huh? Well, time to take this up one level then," Haku said and flashed her handseals.

"Ice Technique: Freezing Mist!" Haku said and the mist that surrounded them dropped in temperature so badly that it started to snow. Sasuke started to shiver uncontrollably.

"Damn, a good skill. We tend to move slower and use more energy to generate heat to protect our body from the cold," Naruto stated.

"Oh boy. It's like fighting Rukia again," Ichigo said.

"Except that she's Rukia upgraded 10 times," Naruto said next.

"Speaking of which, you should summon her," Ichigo massaged his shoulders a bit.

"Yeah, gimme time. Careful not to hit the earth dome," Naruto replied.

"Right, as usual," Ichigo said and charged forward. Haku flashed her handseals and executed her technique.

"Ice Technique: Frost Diver!" ice spikes raced towards Ichigo but he was ready.

"Getsuga!" Ichigo slammed down his blade and sent a vertical beam at the ice spikes. The techniques cancelled each other and Ichigo resumed his charge.

"Ice Technique: Demonic Ice Mirror!" Haku casted and 21 ice mirrors formed around the bridge. Haku immediately jumped into one of them and disappeared.

"What the? Okay..." Ichigo said. "That's new,"

All of the mirrors contain images of Haku and moved through the air while circling the bridge and sending out a hail of ice senbons .

Naruto was forced to stop his summoning and defend himself from the barrage of ice needles. Sasuke tried his best but a few got through, pinning his back and arms. Ichigo covered himself in chakra to deflect the needles and jumped at one of the mirrors but it moved away.

"Annoying!" Ichigo said.

Sasuke knew that he has to destroy the ice mirrors and seeing that his flames had failed him again and again, he decided to throw another exploding kunai at one of the mirror.

The Haku image grabbed the kunai from the mirror and throw it at Naruto using another mirror from Naruto's back. Naruto saw this and Body Flickered away with Sasuke. The explosion rocked the bridge and destroyed much of the ice that covered it.

"Dammit Sasuke! Didn't you learn?" Naruto scolded and dropped Sasuke. Naruto saw that the ice needles are spreading around the wounds. "Focus your chakra on the wounds to stop their spread!" Naruto ordered and flashed his handseals.

"Earth Technique: Earth Dome!" Naruto did the same technique around Sasuke but smaller. "Stay and get the needles out!" Naruto said before the dome closes and he could see the hated look in Sasuke's eyes. He couldn't care less about his stupid ego now.

"Summoning Technique!" Naruto immediately casted while more ice senbons hit his chakra covered body.

A puff of smoke later and Rukia appeared. Haku however, was ready and immediately, all the ice mirrors converged on her and formed an ice dome. "Rukia!" Naruto and Ichigo screamed as Naruto saw Rukia's horrified look.

"Ice Technique: Frozen Maiden!" Haku casted and Naruto immediately dispelled Rukia before the attack could hit. "Smart move," Haku said and the ice mirrors parted again and revealed ice spikes protruding from it. Had Naruto didn't dispelled Rukia, she would be spiked to death.

"Fucking bitch!" Ichigo said and jumped at the mirror and slashed a Getsuga at it. The attack as usual, missed and the mirrors went to the other side of the bridge and Haku stepped out from one of the mirrors.

"Ice Technique: Demonic Ice Swords" Haku said and four of the ice mirrors changed shape into the form of a large sword with blades on each end.

"Fuck," Naruto and Ichigo said. The sword hovered for a moment before flying towards them. Ichigo clashed with one of them but it proved to be a mistake. His sword hit one of the bladed ends before it spun and hit him with the other end, causing a deep cut that was soon covered in ice. "Fuck" Ichigo said again.

Naruto quickly used his Wind Enhanced Tools technique on his kunai, creating a kunai wind blade and clashed with one of the ice sword in the middle and managed to cut it through. That also proved to be a mistake.

The split ends were still active and speared at him. Naruto immediately Moon Flashed upwards to avoid it. Another sword including the split swords flew at him and speared Naruto. However, the swords found itself embedded in a log covered with exploding tags.

The log exploded, destroying the swords with it. Ichigo faced another sword and prepared himself. The sword came flying at him in a thrust and Ichigo flared his lightning chakra through his sword and thrust it at the sword too. Both swords' tip met each other but Ichigo's lightning coated Zangetsu proved superior and speared through the sword and shattered it into million pieces.

The last sword came flying at him from his back but Naruto landed on it with such force that it shattered completely.

"Very good. But not good enough. It's over though, as you won't live through this," Haku said. Ichigo and Naruto turned to look at her and realised to their horror that Haku had finished another technique.

"Ice Technique: Ice Forest," Haku casted and the snow that was falling to the battlefield immediately grow to balls of spiked ice. Each of them didn't stop growing and continue to send spiky ice tendrils all over the place.

In an instant, the area where Haku and Naruto was fighting was covered in numerous sharp ice tendrils and made the whole are looked like it was covered in a forest made of ice.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Naruto could hear himself saying. He has already dispelled Ichigo before the attack could reach full maturity but he himself wasn't fast enough to avoid it. Naruto managed to cover himself with chakra but the ice tendrils keep coming. He soon found himself speared with hundreds of tiny sharp ice tendrils all over his body and he could feel the ice spreading.

Naruto broke free of the ice tendrils and could feel the freezing pain setting in. If he doesn't finish this quick, he will be dead for sure. Naruto then flared chakra all over his body again to stop the spread when large icicles crashed on him.

Naruto barely dodged it as the ice tendrils in the makeshift ice forest made it harder for him to move around. Naruto then Moon Flashed upwards, breaking through the spiky tendrils in the process. To his horror however, Haku was waiting.

As soon as he got out from the ice forest, Haku was on in front of him with an ice sword in hand and speared him through the gut. Naruto's mouth started to bleed and he was about to grab Haku's neck when Haku pushed him downwards, sending them crashing downwards into the floor below.

Naruto was soon pinned to the floor by the freezing ice sword and Haku was standing on its hilt while looking down on him.

All Naruto could see was Haku's calm eyes before darkness overtook him.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

**Mindscape**

_Drip..._

_Drip..._

Naruto found himself back in front of the prison bars again and couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"_**Do you see what's happening Naruto?," **_Yami said. He was struggling with himself as the damage that Naruto received in the physical world appeared on him. Numerous ice wounds are all over him, including the fatal wound he got from Haku's ice sword.

"_**YoUr pain...IS...mY STRENGTH!" **_Yami said with difficulty. _**"as My strENGTh gROws, mY COnsCIoUS ERODES!" **_

Naruto ran towards the Kyuubi, hoping to at least help his other self.

"_**STOP! YOUR PLACE IS NOT HERE!" **_Yami screamed and pulled various chains that caused the Kyuubi to lunge forward and crashed his head on the prison bars, sending Naruto backwards by this sudden movement. The Kyuubi roared in pain but Yami paid no heed to it.

Yami then let out a roar as the ice wounds now disappeared; however, Yami's shadow seemed to increase in volume. Yami then seemed to calm down and took a few deep breaths before continuing.

"_**I'll give you more of Kyuubi's power, so stop fucking die already!" **_Yami said and he gripped a number of chains using both hands. Red chakra then started to flow out from Kyuubi while he grunted in pain. The chakra then travelled along the chains and into Yami himself.

"_**Go out there and kick that girly boy's butt! Don't make me come out and do it!" **_Yami said and Naruto nodded.

**#$#$#$#$#$#$#$#**

Haku dispelled the ice forest and got off from the sword's hilt. She then gave Naruto one last look. His torso was almost frozen completely and soon, his heart will be completely frozen, and blood won't be able to flow to any part of his body. The brain later will be starved of oxygen, leading to a slow and painful death. It looks like that decapitation isn't needed after all.

Haku turned around and walked towards the earth dome that was protecting Tazuna. She hoped that Kakashi wasn't giving Zabuza a hard time. She was a bit worried, considering that Kakashi did almost kill Zabuza last time.

She didn't want to admit it, as it would make Zabuza sound inferior but yes, Haku was stronger than Zabuza. It wasn't very surprising, considering the advantage Haku had. Had it not for her bloodline, Zabuza won't pull her from the darkness that plagued her in her early years.

It was ironic, that her ability is what caused her much pain for the early years of her life in the first place. That it had caused her her family. Yet, it also gave her much strength that it allowed her to meet with Zabuza.

Had it been any other person, they would have hate the ability that caused them suffering, and made them being used as a weapon. Haku felt that way at first. But life had to move on, and it doesn't care whether you're coming along or not. Life is 10 percent of what you give, and 90 percent of how you make it; of how you deal with what is given to you.

Haku was past that point of grief. If life decides to give her lemons, then she'll make lemonades, lemon pies, lemon juices and she'll even create a religion based on lemons if she had too.

And, from the look of it; she used her 'lemons' quite well.

The Ice ability is without doubt, one of the strongest ability there is. What made it strong? Well, to answer that, we have to answer another question; what made a species strong?

What made Mother Nature kill one species yet let the other live? What was the factor?

It wasn't strength. If that was true, then giant animals would have ruled the earth.

It wasn't speed. If that was true, then the fastest animals would have been untouchable.

It was versatility, the ability to change and adapt. That is what made human rulers of the earth.

In fact, Mother Nature is about change. She was cruel and will not hesitate to kill her children that aren't able to fulfill her expectations.

But alas, humanity; Mother Nature's most successful child yet, managed to turn the table around. Instead of animal adapting to nature, nature has to adapt to humanity.

Humanity was also, the epitome of change. A human would be crazy doing the same thing over and over again. Like hearing a joke; it was fun the first time, but after that?

And that was what made the Ice ability so strong. It was versatile. Her ice was able to change to any form according to the situation. Fighting against Fire users? Drop the heat until their fire is pathetically weak. Need a protective shield? Fashion yourself a shield. Need to capture an enemy? Make an ice prison.

In fact, Naruto wasn't able to use much Earth techniques as they were on top of a bridge were there wasn't any earth on it to use. If you wanted to use earth techniques around here, you have to first convert your chakra to earth and then use it for your technique. Something that would be time consuming and a luxury Haku didn't allow.

And versatility was Haku's forte. She was like a good magician; never be a one trick pony. That and distract your audience's attention away from what you are doing so as to fool them.

And that was what Haku did. While her enemy was busy fighting one of her style, she changes it. When the enemy was about to get used to it, change it again.

Had Haku were gifted with other ability, like the Byakugan; maybe, she would have lost against Naruto.

Haku was about to reach the earth dome when she felt a massive chakra spike behind her. She turned around and saw a spiralling tower of red chakra around a crouching Naruto; his wounds were healing and her ice sword in his left hand.

"I really, really should have cut off your head," Haku said with cold venom. Another botched kill? She was lucky that it was the same person, if it were many people; they would have plotted her murder by now. "So it wasn't super resistance to poison, huh? Probably a bloodline ability that gives super regeneration,"

Haku also realised something that was a bit odd with Naruto. His blue eyes were now red with slits and his fang grew longer. His whisker marks are more apparent and what's more, he was coated with some sort of chakra cloak with a tail behind him.

This is bad. Naruto then crushed the sword ice and with a loud roar, charged at Naruto.

'I'm on my end here!' Haku thought about her chakra reserve. "Ice Technique: Demonic Ice Armor!" Haku casted and all the remaining ice mirrors converged on her and formed an ice cocoon. A second later, the ice cocoon breaks and revealed Haku clad in complete samurai like armor made of ice.

The armor had a samurai helmet with a crescent moon as its symbol and an oni mask covered her face. Her armor's chest plate also sports the same oni mask. Her shoulder guards had two curved horns each. On both of Haku's hand were two large crescent blades, easily as long as a katana and it looked like a large talon.

"Come on!" Haku charged at Naruto and slashed horizontally using her left blade at Naruto but Naruto grabbed it. The strength of Naruto's grip was unbelievable! The blade was already cracking. Haku then used her other blade and stabbed at Naruto's head but he avoided it.

Naruto then used his free hand to punch at Haku's chest but ice spikes sprouted from the oni's mask and pierced Naruto's hand. Naruto however, wasn't fazed by this as the chakra cloak reduced the damage and the punch still connected and sends Haku sliding backwards a bit. Naruto however, managed to peel off her left blade from her hand.

"Tch!" Haku grew an ice shield to replace the left blade. A mini cyclone form at Naruto's left hand and this surprised Haku. "Without handseals?"

Naruto then leapt and punched Haku's shield. Haku felt like it was being hit by a drill. The cyclone was trying to spin Haku's shield away but Haku glued herself to the floor by freezing her ice armor to the floor.

Naruto felt that his technique won't break through so his instincts improvised. He back away and casted Cyclone Fist again but this time, instead of the normal cyclone covered fist, it was a cyclone shaped in the form of a drill.

The Cyclone Drill was spinning so fast that a loud sucking sound could be heard. "Shit" Haku said and Naruto leapt again with a roar and stabbed Haku's shield. The drill was starting to bore through Haku's shield.

Haku gritted her teeth and ice spikes sprouted from the shields and speared Naruto, but it wasn't too deep; courtesy of the chakra cloak again. Haku's shield started to crack and Haku knew it was futile holding on to the shield.

A part of her armor on her hips parted away and Haku released her shield while grabbing an explosive tag from her hip pouch. She then tagged the shield and jumped backwards. The explosion consumed Naruto but a long hand shaped chakra shout out from the smoke.

Haku slashed at the hand; destroying her right blade but managed to deflect the arm away before it went back into the smoke. Naruto charged from the smoke again and Haku casted Frost Diver. Naruto however, just charged through the ice spikes like an angry bull.

"Fucking demon!" Haku screamed and fashioned ice gauntlets on both of her hand. Haku punched at Naruto but he grabbed it and she tried to punch again but the result was the same. Now Naruto was grabbing both of Haku's hand.

An ice blade sprouted from each of Haku's knees and Haku kneed at Naruto, trying to spear him using the knee blade. Naruto roared and countered with his own knee kick and broke the ice blade. Naruto then pulled his hands backwards and Haku was pulled forward by this action and he head butted Haku's ice helmet hard.

"Gah!" The ice helmet cracked, sending Haku backwards a bit and made her dizzy for a second, but it was a second too long. Naruto then released his right hand and cocked back. He pulled Haku in again and elbowed her helmet.

The helmet cracked again but still held together and she was sent reeling back but Naruto wasn't finished. He released his left hand and grabbed Haku's helmet and brought it down to his chest level. Naruto then delivered a devastating right knee kick and right elbow chop to her helmet, breaking it completely. The helmet was strong enough to stop both attacks' momentum from reaching her head though.

Haku was momentarily stunned and was somewhat bowing dizzily in front of Naruto. Naruto didn't press on his attack and Haku took this chance to jump backwards but Naruto appeared in front of her.

Naruto held both of his fist in front of Haku's chest and chanted, "**Rokuogan,**"

A devastating shockwave rocked Haku's chest armor and send her flying backwards and she bounced along the bridge floor a few times before finally stopping.

Haku didn't move instantly as chakra exhaustion is catching up to her and the damage from the Rokuogan was quite painful. Naruto panted a bit before the chakra cloak recede and he slowly made his way towards Haku.

Haku also slowly got to her feet and her shattered and destroyed ice armor fall of her by pieces. She coughed a little blood before wiping it away. "You...really is a demon. I've never seen someone took that much damage...it's just, unreal!" Haku said and coughed again.

Naruto winced at this. It was true, as he now held not one, but two demons inside him. It was ironic, that he wanted for people to see him not as a demon, not the other way around. "Are you alright? I used the weakest Rokuogan as to avoid destroying your organs," Naruto asked.

Haku laughed a bit and caused her to cough again, "Weakest? I felt like someone put an exploding tag inside me! And why are you being kind to me? I almost killed you two times, remember?"

"But you didn't," Naruto said simply. Truthfully, he didn't want to kill Haku, but he wasn't sure why. It felt like, there's something that prevented him from killing him.

"I **couldn't,**" Haku said with a little venom.

"And? I'm still alive, and you couldn't defeat me, so I see no reason to kill you," Naruto said.

Haku laughed harder at this. "But I have the intention to!"

"So? If laws were to judge people by merely intentions, then there would be nobody left," Naruto said.

"Then I could have just come back and try again to kill you and Tazuna!" Haku said with venom. She didn't like his thinking; it was naive. And naivety kills.

"Then I will stop you," Naruto simply replied.

"What the fuck? I don't get you! From your eyes, your fighting ability, I could see that you've murdered before! So why the mercy now? Is it because I'm the last of my clan? You're going to bring me back to your village to breed your own Yuki clan?" Haku said harshly.

"I want to know...why are you with Zabuza when you could have just left? I know and you know that you're stronger than Zabuza. So why?" Naruto asked.

Haku stared at Naruto for a while, thinking what ever had made the boy like this. You don't just give mercy to the person that managed to kill you two times just like this. Haku then decided to answer, "Because I choose to. Because he is the person I wanted to protect. He gave me reason to live. He made me accept my powers,"

"I see..." Naruto nodded.

"What is it with you?" Haku asked.

"I don't know. You saw my abilities back then. I had enough strength to go wherever I wanted to, yet I choose to stay at the place that doesn't want me, but...I guess your answer...sort of answer mine too," Naruto said with a smile.

"What?" Haku raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, you could have left but just for a single person, you choose to stay. Even though almost everyone at my place hates me, at least there's a few that doesn't, and for those few, I'll stay," Naruto replied.

"I always say to myself that the opinions of the people that hated me don't matter. But no matter what I do, I can still feel their hate. It still hurt and I almost gave up but seeing you, make me steel my resolve again," Naruto said again and smiled.

"You're really strong Haku-san, and all of it because of your devotion to a single person," Naruto said. "You'd make a good husband,"

Haku blushed at this. If only he knew...

"So you got your answer. What now?" Haku asked.

"The same answer; I won't kill you. I don't want to kill unnecessarily. Besides, I know you're a good person," Naruto replied. "You also tried to kill unnecessarily like how you went straight to Tazuna and not killing my team mates first,"

"But...if you forced my hand, then I will do what is necessary," Naruto death glared at her and Haku flinched a bit and looked away.

"Fine...I'll stop now. Not sure about Zabuza though," Haku said and then suddenly, the mist cleared. This could mean one thing...the fight is over.

Haku turned around to find Zabuza being caught by ninja dogs and Kakashi was about to deliver the finishing blow with a Chidori aimed to his chest.

Haku's heart raced at seeing this. "No!"

Kakashi was already in motion; his hand speared at Zabuza's chest and was inches away until...

"Water Technique: Water Encampment Wall!" A man appeared and stood on Zabuza's shoulder and released a torrent of water that consumed Kakashi.

Kakashi's charge was stopped and what's more, his lightning Chidori hit the water and caused the whole water to be charged with electricity. Kakashi was jolted by the electric current and was pushed backwards until he was a few feet away from his starting point. To make things worse, Kakashi's nin dogs was dispelled, leaving Zabuza free again.

"Who are you?" Kakashi asked through gritted teeth. He was still trying to regain control of his body from the paralyzing electric. Being stung by your own electric was a norm in trying to learn lightning affinity.

"The name's Ao, and I can't let you kill Zabuza," the eye patched man said while crossing his arms.

* * *

Thought that it was already over don't you? There's a little more!

* * *

"That's fine and all, but Get. Off. Me," Zabuza said with killing intent laced in his words at the man that was standing on his shoulder.

Ao didn't move a muscle but he turned his head at Zabuza. "Hmph! In the old days-"

"Get. Off," Zabuza said again.

* * *

**Author's Note:** And bam! Now you know why Naruto doesn't have his zanpakuto yet.

And you know, although the fight seemed long in words, when I imagined it, it turned out to be quite short. But oh well.

Jutsus used:

**Ice Technique: Ice Floor – **Coats the floor in ice, making it slippery and hard to move. To move properly, one must have the proper boots or use chakra. The aim of this technique is to disrupt mobility and constantly drain enemy's chakra. However, the ice floor can also be used to increase mobility by sliding and skating across the surface.

**Ice Technique: Freezing Mist – **Hidden Mist's upgrade. It lowers visibility and at the same time, decreases temperature to reduce mobility. It will make the body lose energy quickly through shivering to generate more heat to warm the body. It will also create snow for the next technique.

**Ice Technique: Ice Forest – **Creates an instant ice forest that is filled with sharp spiky ice tendrils using snow in the area.

**Ice Technique: Frozen Maiden – **The Demonic Ice Mirrors converge on a target and trap them in a dome of ice. Ice spikes then sprout from the ice dome to stab the target.

**Ice Technique: Demonic Ice Swords – **Creates a double ended ice swords (think Darth Maul) that is capable of flight.

**Ice Technique: Demonic Ice Armor – **A ninjutsu where the user is coated in an armor made of ice. The downside to this ability is that depending on the weapon used in hand (shield, blade, gauntlet) the user isn't able to cast any ninjutsu as there is no room space for handseals. However, without any weapon, the user can then use ninjutsu normally. The advantage of this technique is that, the user is able to sprout ice spikes anywhere over the body.

**Wind Technique: Cyclone Drill - **An advanced version of Cyclone Fist. Creates a sharp cyclone in the shape of a drill that is able to pierce and drill through target.

**Rokuogan (Six King Gun) – **The Rokushiki's ultimate attack. The user place both fist in front of the target with both thumbs facing each other. A large of amount of chakra is used in an instant to create a devastating and explosive shockwave that could damage internal organs.


End file.
